The Hope In Tamers
by the-east-hunter
Summary: when TK is taken into the time of digmon Tamers, which is in fact twenty or so years after the events of Digimon Adventure 02, joins up with Takato, Henry, and Rika to save the worlds once again. Meanwhile, the old digidestined are still living and thriving, though none of them are the same since their friend disappeared, and their lives drastically changed. 02-03 (rewrite)
1. To Tamers

Two years.

That's how long it had been. Two years since the fate of the world had once again been dropped into the hands of mere children. Since They had journeyed to the digital world. Since those youth had seen their Digimon, their second halves.

If TK really tried to think through it, it really shouldn't be that big of a deal, right? It's not like this was the first time this sort of thing had happened, where their partners had been ripped from them in such a violent matter. But it _was_ different for him. The first time, during his first exploits in the digital world, he had been young and naive. Heck, TK half thought as he grew older that it was all a dream or a creation of his imagination that his brothers kind friends had been willing to play along with. But then Patamon had come back into his life again, when he had been older and at an age where his existence was undeniably real.

And losing him again. After all their work.

It was like losing Hope.

Their eternal separation hurt him every time he thought about it. To make things worse the group seemed to be splitting up, tearing at the seems. The original crew from so long ago were mostly torn apart by college and career pathways, things that were undeniable. As for the second group… well they all still seemed so close, so he could only blame himself in the end. He had been pushing people away, and he knew it.

Even Kari.

That was one of the worst parts. On one hand perhaps Kari was one of the people who understood what he was going through the best, having also been a key part of both journeys. But then she reminded him of both times he had been o the digital world, with Patamon, and old wounds just reopened all over again.

TK sat at his desk, attempting to work on his homework, doing his best not to glance up and expect to see Patamon playing with his nick nacks. A high pitched squeal suddenly emanated from one of his drawers causing him to flinch, alarmed. His phone was right next to him, and he couldn't think of anything in any of his drawers that could be making that noise…

He fumbled through a few drawers full of papers, until finally, his hand hovered over the one drawer he tried not to open. Slowly, gingerly, his hand grabbed the handle and pulled, revealing the green digivice, the small screen alive and full of static like it hadn't been in years.

Hand moving like it had a mind of it's own, it reached for it.

The digivice perfectly fit into his hand like it always had, and as he held it the light grew brighter and brighter until it was all that he could see, blinding him with it's brightness. It was hot to hold and TK could feel it move in his fingers, taking a new shape. The white overtook him until all he knew was black.

oOo

"Are you sure you're okay, buddy?" Takato asked nervously, and Guilmon gave a rumble of confirmation as he shifted in his makeshift bed, eyes droopy.

"I'm just tired." He yawned, and Takato smiled, patting him before heading back to his home. At least they agreed on one thing, Takato could probably sleep for a few million years at this point, his body feeling battered in a way that it had never before. The walk home was quiet, a refreshing change from the events of the night, and he let his mind wander as it attempted to take in everything that had happened. That lion digimon was nothing like anything else what had seen so far, and he didn't like what it seemed to foretell lay ahead for them. But he knew that as long as they stood together as a team, they could handle it.

It was with this positive thought that he arrived at his house, excited at the prospect of finally crawling into the covers of his bed. However, as he came to his doorstep the thought vanished from his mind. Right there, laying on the welcome mat, was a boy, unconscious. Takato didn't even thing as he tore open the door and yelled up the stairs.

"Mom, Dad, something happened!"

oOo

Riley heard the words through her comms. Somehow they had managed to get through the cacophony, in between the screams that had wrenched her gut. Her partner had already broken down, unable to take it, but she was made of something tougher than that. After all she had seen in her time, she could manage this.

' _They're just data, they can;t be your friends.'_ She knew Yamaki was lying when he said that, there was no way he was buying what he was attempting to sell to these kids. Maybe he thought he was some big hero, trying to save these kids from their own heartbreak. Or maybe he really had become so jaded. It took everything not to cry for him, for how far he had fallen. You could think he'd remember all that he had learned about friendship.

oOo

TK woke up slowly, as if rising from a lake. Slowly, he blinked in the unfamiliar surroundings. He lay on a couch in someone's living room. To his side was a coffee table, on which sat his shoes and his hat. Brain kicking back into gear he remembered the whole event with his digivice and quickly dug his hand into his pocket, sighing with relief as he felt it's smooth surface. Though it had taken a new form, TK knew it was still his. It was smaller than his newer one but was still bigger than his original digivice. Unlike the previous designs, this one was sleek. It was silver with a goldenrod detailing on it. He tried pressing a few of the buttons, but the screen remained dark, causing his stomach to sink with disappointment. No sign of an egg, no image showing Poyomon…

He gave a sigh and looked at the ceiling, as if in prayer. What had he gotten himself into this time. Really, you'd think these digivices would eventually upgrade to have some sort of communication feature, then he could like ping Genai a message or something and try to figure things out. Maybe he should put in a buyer request. To whoever the heck made digivices. Or did like the universe just will them into existence? It wasn't really clear.

Footsteps announced company as a new face came into view. It was a boy around his own age, maybe a bit younger, talking on his phone.

"You don't go on patrol? Yes, I know it's 6:30 in the morning but - fine, I'll go alone." He hung up with a huff and shoved the phone angrily into his pocket before he noticed that I was sitting up. "Oh! You're awake!" Are you okay?" The brown haired boy rushed over to me and I scooted back a little, shocked by his excitement. I noticed the goggles on his head and smiled, reminded of Tai and Davis.

"Im, yeah, I'm fine." I awkwardly scratched the back of my head, smoothly pocketing my digivice with the other hand. "I assume you… found me?" The boy nodded as he tried to rub the sleep from his eyes.

"Yeah! You were passed out on our front porch - do you remember how you got there?" Well, TK wasn't about to just casually say 'oh, you know, my magical mini computery thingy just happened to teleport my there after knocking me out, no biggie'.

"No." He said, mind scrambling to pick up some kind of alibi. "I don't remember…. Anything?" Shoot. Way to go TK. Let's just go with a cliche amnesia story. The boy's face morphed into one of incredible concern and instantly TK felt guilty about lying, but it was way too late now. "Anything from the past while at least." There, that was somewhat better

"Do you remember your name?"

"Takeru." He replied. "But you can call be TK."

"I'm Takato, it's nice to meet you!" He held out his hand and TK happily accepted it.

"Can you tell me where I am?"

"Shinjuku." Takato replied easily, and TK desperately went through all of his knowledge on names of places near Odaiba. He had heard of Shinjuku, but one look out the window told him either his knowledge was wrong, or there was some kind of gap from where he had come from and where he was. The Shinjuku he knew of was a small town in the countryside, not this bustling city that say outside. "Here, my parents should already be up making bread, let's go let them know you're awake!"

It was Takato's mom that decided to come and deal with the situation that was TK while his dad continued to busy himself with opening the bakery. She decided that the best course of action would be to head down to the nearest police station. TK wasn't overly fond of the idea - he'd prefer to try and get familiarized with their surroundings and then deal with situation. He assumed his digivice had plopped him down here for a reason, so it was mostly a matter of trying to find out what needed to be done. Odds were that the others were also teleported here as well, so looking for them was definitely high on his list. It wasn't really like any of them had ever been 'chosen' for a new journey on their own before.

"So, your parents run a bakery?" He was trying not to look around too much at some of the devices people carried. It seemed far too advanced for the time, but then TK didn't know exactly where his digivice had taken him. For all he knew he was in an alternate universe or something.

"Yeah, it's pretty neat! We get the leftover bread so there's never really a shortage of it in my home. My dad used to run a noodle cart before he met my mom, then he shut down the cart and turned to bread after he got together with her."

"We're here." Takato's mom announced and she led us into the station. She talked to some men at the counter before they took us off to a side room, and sat TK down in a chair. He squirmed under the eyes of the men looking at him, but did his best to answer their questions as honestly as possible. He told them where he was from, his name, his age, everything short of how he had gotten here. Then they had the three of them wait in a room for an extremely boring half an hour. When they finally returned it was with a swung open door in an almost theatrical way, the policeman's voice booming through the room.

"We've searched out databanks." Everyone's heads lifted in anticipation. "We can't find any missing people with the name Takeru Takaishi. We even went back missing people reports up into 15 years ago to be sure, but no one matches your profile." I put on a devastated face, although internally I just catalogued the information for use later. Takato's mom talked with them more, argued, raised her voice, and then finally herded us out of the police station.

"So what's going to happen to TK?" Takato asked. She seemed to mull over his question as we walked back into the bakery.

"I don't know Takato. The police station really wanted to hold onto him or put into the system until they could track down his family…" TK stiffened. Putting him into a restricting position would only make it harder to find the others.

"Why don't we take him in?" Takato's dad entered the room, drying his hands on a towel. He had his apron on, a flour dusting covering all of his clothes and even sprinkled into his hair. I mean, he can share a room with Takato or sleep on the couch." His eyes drifted to look at TK and he paused, eyebrows scrunched up and his hands stopped moving. Takato didn't seem to notice as he excitedly grabbed TK's arm.

"Yes! Thank you dad! Come on, let me show you my room!"

oOo

 **Okay, so, I'm really go for it and gonna attempt to rewrite this? In this good year 2018? I don't know how far I'll get with this rewrite, since I am now a college kid, working on a comic, Inktober, and a book, but hey let's go ahead and pile another thing ontop of there.**

 **Let me know what you think of it so far! If you wanna contact me I'm the-east-art on tumblr :)**


	2. Guilmon

"Don't freak out." Takato said as he walked TK through the park, passing by the jungle gyms with young children climbing over them and progressing to the less populated areas. After he had shown TK around the house he had gotten super serious and even looked around to make sure his parents weren't listening before saying that there was something he needed to show TK.

"What exactly do I need to not be freaking out about?" TK asked as he eyes the small side pathway that led to a half destroyed cement shelter. He was beginning to develop an idea of what this was going to be, but he didn't want to over anticipate things.

"Well, you see-"

"Takato-mon!" A babyish voice exclaimed as a red figure burst out the shelter and pounced onto Takato, taking him down to the ground. In TK's pocket he felt his digivice vibrate. He pulled it out and was surprised to see the screen had lit up and projected a display of the creature - Guilmon apparently - showing some statistics and facts about the Digimon. Heh, useful. Certainly better than having to rely on Tentomon and Izzy to know everything. TK placed it back into his pocket as he sized up the new digimon. It looked like a dinosaur, mostly a dark red color with black markings all over it. Takato was patting it's side as he struggling to sit up.

"Woah, calm down buddy." Takato managed to get out and the digimon looked up from Takato, distracted by TK. He gave a curious sniff.

"Takato-mon, who's this?"

"Guilmon, this is TK. TK, this is Guilmon, my best friend." Takato eyed TK carefully, waiting for a freak out, but it never came. Instead as Guilmon approached TK he gave him a few pats on the head as he brought out his digivice.

"He smells funny." Guilmon commented as Takato gawked at the golden device, quickly pulling a red one out of his own pocket.

"TK, you're one of us?" He exclaimed happily, looking around with excitement. "Who's your partner? I understand that you wanted to hide him but we're friends, you don't have to worry about that." TK's stomach dropped and he fiddled with his digivice sadly, pushing the buttons even though the display had gone dark again.

"I, uh, I don't know where he is. Full confessional here Takato, I don't have any memory loss. I was taken here by my digivice, I don't know why but I assume to help you. But I lost my partner a long time ago. And my digivice, it's not reacting at all to tell me where he is." The last few words came out somewhat choked as his throat closed up and TK could've sworn at himself. He felt like a fool for getting emotional about this all over again. He should be better than this, used to this crap.

Takato almost immediately softened, somewhat at a loss for words and Guilmon stepped forward and wrapped his arms around TK.

"I'm sorry, that sounds very hard." Guilmon said and TK took a few stabilizing breaths. No point giving up hope that he would see Patamon again. They were bound to be reunited, the fact that his Digivice had changed just like before his second adventure proved that. Things would be okay as long as he kept himself together and didn't fall apart.

"It's okay. I just need to be patient, I think." He gave a resolute nod and Takato eyed him in concern for a little while longer before nodding as well.

"A few of my friends are waiting for us further in the park - they love playing with Guilmon. Do you want to come TK?" The boy shuffled his feet somewhat uncertainly.

"Come on, TK, play with us!" Guilmon explained, tugging on TK's shirt a little. Really that was all it took and he gave in, offering a small, somewhat shy smile. He trailed slightly behind them as they walked, approaching the sound of talking kids. As they came to the clearing there was a small group of kids, two of which immediately saw Takato step out of the trees, eyes lighting with excitement.

"Dude, you made it!" The one with dirty blonde hair exclaimed and ran over, a slightly shorter boy with dark hair and glasses close behind.

"We knew you'd come." The dark haired boy said confidently. TK watched as the one with the dirty blonde hair's eyes slid past Takato to look at him, eyebrows knitting together in curiosity.

"Who's the new guy?"

"Oh! He's uh, he's staying with my family for a bit." Takato replied, cutting out the complicated stuff. "TK, these are are my friends Kenta," he gestured to the one with the black hair. "...and Kazu." The one with the dirty blonde hair. "Guys, this is TK."

They made their way to the rest of the group of kids, Kenta and Kazu talking up a storm with Takato and playing around with Guilmon already. There was a small cry of joy as some of the other kids noticed Guilmon too. It was a little bizarre for TK to see - they didn't really flaunt their digimon during their escapades in the real world during any of his adventures. To see Takato just have him out in the open…

"Hey, Takato?" He asked, drawing the boy's attention from where he was watching some of the kids. "Are all of these kids digidestined?" Sure they had learned that there were technically a ton of them, but for so many to be in the same place… Takato's eyes widened at the question and he vigorously shook his head.

"No! Not at all. Only two other people I know have digivices. Well, besides you." TK nodded at that, glancing over at the group of kids again. They had put him in a shopping cart and were wheeling him around.

"That makes more sense. Kenta and Kazu, right?" Again Takato gave him a funny look and motioned a 'no'.

"No, they're actually not here right now. Kenta and Kazu are just my friends from school." That did make TK frown a little. He had thought for sure…

"Well, it's neat that your friends are so cool about Guilmon." Takato smiled at that and nodded, walking over to join in the fun. TK felt fine to stand off to the side and watch. He was out of place here, a boy from somewhere else missing all the different pieces of himself. If he really thought about it, over the years he had become less and less of a whole. There was losing his tag and crest, losing Patamon, and then his friends dropping off one by one. All the things that completed him. Watching all the kids playing just seemed to emphasize his loneliness without the other Digidestined.

"Wow, you sure seem to be havin' a good time." A voice came from a tree, causing most of the crowd to look up. There was another digimon, this one smaller than Guilmon, roughly the size of a normal Rookie (or at least most the rookies TK's companions had over the course of their adventure). Purple with horns and a bandana, he sneered down at Takato who had stopped and was looking up at him with a sour expression on his face.

"What do you want, Impmon?" He said exasperatedly.

"Nothin', just seein' what a good time you're havin'. You know, while your friends fighting for their poor lives in the subway." Takato's shoulders dropped and his eyes widened.

"Henry and Rika? In the subway?"

"Yeah, gettin' real bad down there. But I see you're tooo busy to help them protect the town." Impmon mocked before hopping back into the trees, his cackling growing softer as he got farther and farther away. Takato stood there for a moment, fists clenched, biting his lip as he internally beat himself up. TK considered going over and putting a supportive hand on his shoulder or something, at least try to cheer him up, but before he could Takato turned, eyes full of determination.

"Come on Guilmon, we need to get down to the subway quick." Guilmon turned reluctantly from the crowd of kids and nodded.

"Right."

"Awesome! Are you guys going to be doing a real life Digimon battle?" One of the kids exclaimed. "That's so cool! We're definitely coming." The kids nodded their agreement, and TK's stomach squirmed. He actually felt a little bad for the kids, he hadn't asked Takato how long he'd had his digivice, but it couldn't be long if there was still this romanticization of battles among his friends.

"Stop it!" Takato yelled, face uncharacteristically angry. "This - this isn't game, okay?" He reached his hand into his pockets and pulled out a stack of cards, flipping through them. "You guys can't come with me!" He shot the others such a withering glare, full of so much frustration and so emotionally torn. It was something TK could recognize from his friends in the past.

He was going to follow that train of thought as most of the others kids were herded away by Kenta and Kazu who were saying things like 'nothing to see here, everyone away' but instead he was distracted as Takato selected one of the cards, holding it up with a focused look on his face.

"Okay Guilmon, if we're going to get down there as soon as possible, we're going to need to cut out the middle man here." He took the card and ran it through the digivice. "Digimodify! Digmon's drills!"

TK could only gawk as Guilmon's code for his hands changed, warping into a very familiar pair of drills - and if that didn't just tug at his heart strings. Digmon may not have been his digimon, but he had been Cody's, and with their close bond from being DNA partners some days it had felt like he was. Guilmon then just drilled down to the sewer, Takato preparing to go after him.

"This is Tamers business." Takato said, looking over at TK. "Do you want to come?" Tk would like nothing more but…

"No, I'm good up here. I'd just get in the way." He waved him away and watched as Takato followed Guilmon down to the subway to help. TK couldn't stop himself from pulling out his digivice and surveying it again, fingers tracing over the slot that he had overlooked earlier as aesthetic design. Dang these upgrades could be pretty cool.

oOo

"We did it!" Takato yelled in success as the snake Digimon started to disappear into data, flakes of it flying into the air like snow.

"This is not over, Tamers." Sandiramon hissed, his dying voice like the sound of a cockroach. "While I may fall, my brethren will rise up! How arrogant you are! You will see the others are worth the time of all four of you - and even then you shall not be enough!" It started to laugh, voice ringing out through the cold tunnel as it's form simply disappeared into nothingness. Rika turned to Henry and Takato.

"What does he mean 'all four of you'?" She looked at them accusingly, and Henry just shrugged, fiddling through his deck of cards.

"Who knows? He was probably just trying to throw us off." Takato let out a little cough, biting his lip nervously.

"Uh, actually, I kind of know what he's talking about…"

oOo

"I'm home!" Henry called out as he entered his house, carefully carrying Terriermon in his arms like a stuffed animal. He could feel his long, deep breaths against his chest as Terriermon tried to make his breathing as unnoticeable as possible. His dad was sitting at the table going over some papers and looked up at his son, adjusting his glasses. Henry carefully maneuvered his right arm to be more covered by Terriermon's big ears.

Henry's dad was pretty much the epitome of a nerd. His face was longer and he had cobalt blue hair, which was where Henry had gotten it. Fairly skinny and dark eyes behind wire frames he had been Henry's hero when he was younger, mostly because of his work for the company that had created the Digimon card and video game. Sitting at the table Henry's father stood surrounded by stacks of paperwork, the reality of his job.

"Oh, Henry, good to see you." His eyes looked his son up and down and stalled on Terriermon for just a moment too long. Henry would be freaking out a bit at that if it didn't happen every time that his dad saw Terriermon, and it hadn't become a problem yet so Henry was willing to pray that it was no big deal. "I hope you weren't down in the subway today. Apparently there was a gas leak."

"Don't worry about it, I wasn't." Henry assured, amused by the stories that people came up with to describe Digimon. His father's eyes continued to rove over him in concern before landing on his arm. Looks like he hadn't hid it as well as he thought.

"Henry, come over here and let me take a look at that." He had to resist the temptation to roll his eyes as he walked over, offering his arm in defeat. It was sporting a long but relatively shallow cut from their fight with Sandiramon today. His dad reached into a nearby drawer and pulled out a medical supplies kit, withdrawing some bandages, a cotton ball, and a small bottle of rubbing alcohol. He winced a little as the alcohol was rubbed on, the cotton ball coming back slightly pink.

The story goes that his dad had originally wanted to be a doctor, for pretty much all of his childhood, had even gone to college for it. Eventually he had found out about his knack for coding video games and had switched career choices, following the trends of the times, but Henry knew that his dad's heart would always lay in the medical field. It showed in his enthusiasm to play nurse whenever any of them had any scrape or bruise. How he tenderly moved and placed the bandage on, a soft but focused look on his face.

"Thanks dad, sorry to bother you, I fell down some stairs."

"Well try to be more careful." His father replied, nodding as he bought the lie hook, line, and sinker. Henry scooped Terriermon back into his arms and headed to his room, just praying he wouldn't run into Suzie before he got there.

oOo

 **I hope you liked this chapter! A major change I want to make in this rewrite is that we have less communication errors in this - honesty is the key in any relationship and TK is gonna use it! I do realize that it is pretty similar to the original, but most of it should be just with better writing and descriptions :)**

 **Thank you for your time, I hope you enjoyed it and are having a good day/night!**


	3. Introductions

**Heck! Reuploading this because I forgot I wanted to address peoples comments at the beginning of the chapters again! Cuz lots of people are anons.**

 **ElleWhitson - Glad you're enjoying it so far! I'm much better at setting aside time to write now, so hopefully updates will continue to be more common**

 **ADChipmunk - thank you!**

 **Yuutojaden - I plan to**

 **Lightus - thanks m8**

 **Puberty7756 - That's right! I'm back baby! And hopefully will finish this story, I assure you I have every intention to. I've grown a lot in the past four years and I know I can do this**

 **Guest - thank you!**

 **Blackwater - I'm not going to enroll him in school, with who the teacher is I think it would just over complicate things**

 **Guest - here's Calumon for ya!**

 **Thank you all for you're reviews, they really make my day!**

 **oOo**

"I now commence this meeting!" Takato called out. Rika just stared at him and popped her bubblegum. Henry have a supportive smile, and TK just shifted nervously from his seat on the ground.

"We don't have 'meetings'." Rika did little quotation marks in the air to emphasize her point. Takato's shoulders slumped a little and Henry quickly jumped it.

"So, is this the guy?" He asked, and Rika rolled her eyes. TK played with the strings on his hoodie.

"Yeah! Guys, I want you to meet TK." He gestured over to the boy, who gave a small wave in return. Rika's eyes roved over him before deeming him boring and a non threat. Henry just smiled and extended his hand.

"It's nice to meet you, I'm Henry." TK shook the hand, eyes the two new faces. Henry was tan, reminding him of Tai, and he wondered if the boy did any sports. His hair was a similar cobalt blue to Joe's.

"Nice to meet you TK." His partner, a Terriermon, said with confidence from his perch on Henry's head, also extending his hand. TK carefully held the small Digimon's hand in his hand a gave it a soft shake. It made him think of Willis and his partner, and idly TK wondered how that trio was doing, if they had recovered from their hurt and heartache yet.

"I don't see your partner." Rika said, glancing around.

"Well, um-" Takato started, obviously trying to not offend TK.

"I don't see yours either." TK replied, and the girl sent him a somewhat appraising look. She sort of reminded him of Sora in her tomboyish nature and red hair, although she was much colder than any other digidestineds he could recall having met. "Actually, I don't have a Digimon." Rika's eyes widened, probably as surprised as she got around someone she didn't know well, and Henry fell backwards and Terriermon pushed off of him.

"What do you mean you don't have a partner?!" The digimon asked, squinting at him.

"If you don't have a digimon, then how are you a Tamer?" Rika asked cooly, eyes narrowed. TK reached into his pocket and withdrew his digivice, showing it to the others. Terriermon immediately reached out and he let the little guy take it.

"I mean, I got my digivice before Guilmon showed up." Takato considered bringing up the fact that he technically did have a partner, his partner just wasn't _here_ , but he didn't want to further complicate matters needlessly, so instead he kept his mouth shut and let the others come to their own conclusions.

"Well, welcome to the group." Henry said with bright smile, and Rika nodded though her face was expressionless. He felt Takato sag with relief as his friends accepted TK.

oOo

Mr. Matsuki wiped his hands on his apron, sending up clouds of white around him and ducking his head as he sneezed, thankful he at least hadn't sneezed in the kitchen. That would have been disastrous. At least there was a chance to go on his lunch break - his wife could easily manage on her own. As he walked over to the kitchen to fix himself a sandwich, or maybe see if Takato had already had all their leftovers from dinner a few nights ago, he passed the bathroom, seeing a figure standing there.

It was the boy they had found on their doorsteps a few nights ago, TK, looking at his reflection in the mirror, turning his head this way and that. He couldn't help the frown that came across his face as he saw the boy. He did indeed look a lot like the TK he knew, and the coincidence might be took much but… but he didn't look the same. And maybe he was looking for reasons not to act, but the facts just didn't add for this to be his TK.

His TK was younger than this boy. If TK had been in the digital world this whole time he shouldn't have aged, and if he had been in the real world he should be much, much older. If at any point he had come over to the physical world Izzy would have known right away. Coincidences did exist in this world, and he didn't know if it was tearing up all these roots he'd put down on one. He had a son now, and a wife, and he couldn't stir things up again over this, not when they were relying on him.

Mr. Matsuki (and he repeated the name internally, like it would help to reinforce the wall he had built between this self and his old self) sent one last look at the boy he may have known, in another lifetime, and continued to walk to the kitchen, trying to leave the ghost of the past behind.

Standing in the bathroom, TK glanced over, thinking someone had been standing in the hallway. But by the time he looked, whoever it was had left.

oOo

TK had yet to enroll in school, and if he had his way he never would. He assumed once he found the rest of the digidestined they'd find out what was going on, how to save the world, and then hopefully make their way back home. While Takato was at school TK would walk the town, keeping an eye out for any familiar faces. A part of him was always hopeful for when his digivice would vibrate, hopefully to tell him that Patamon was within range somewhere. He had been fiddling with the new device a bit, but had yet to find out whether or not his armor was still on here or it had somehow been lost during the upgrade. He hoped not, but it wouldn't be the end of the world if it was. First of all, it's not like he had a digimon to use it on anyway. Second of all it had never been his favorite way of digivolving in the first place. Despite how it was neat and extremely useful against the dark spires, it was just easier and felt more natural for Patamon to digivolve in Angemon. Call it personal preference.

Today TK was sitting in the park, not exactly his best or most valiant attempt to find the others, but it was nice to lay on the grass and absent mindedly push the buttons on his digivice. So far there had been multiple digimon attacks while he had been here, something that seemed semi-common for Takato to deal with. He usually tried to steer clear of them, of course checking first to see if his Digivice reacted in any unusual ways while they were happening, hoping that it would have good news. After a while watching and waiting, trying to see how Takato did tings, it was with a degree of surprise and almost shock that he realized that there was no going to the digital world - unless he did it during school. As far as TK knew Takato had never even been there. It was weird a little disconcerting.

Then there was the mystery of who had made the Digimon card game - cards which had the deliberate coding in them to be used with digivices. It was something else he'd have to investigate.

"Do you want to play?" TK started a bit and shot into a sitting position, opening his eyes to see Calumon plopped down on the grass next to him. Over the past few days TK had been introduced to Calumon, a sweet little Digimon with no child - or Tamer as Takato referred to digidestined as. He just popped up randomly, and while TK's digivice didn't seem to have any information on Calumon he had to assume they were an In Training Digimon from their childishness and cutesy nature.

"I was actually just thinking of hanging out today. And thinking. Alone." TK felt bad to try and shrug off Calumon like that as he did like the small Digimon, but he had been hoping to organize his thoughts and attempt a plan of action for going forward. Calumon's ears retracted into his head, making him look smaller, his eyes lowering down to the ground. It made TK feel like the devil incarnate, the worst person on the planet.

"Oh… Then I'll be alone with you!" He exclaimed and the little ears popped right back out as he hopped closer, and a small sigh came from TK's mouth. Somehow both exasperated and happy with Calumon's determination to be with him.

"Yeah, okay." He gave in and Calumon popped onto his lap happily, leaning his head up against TK's chest. God sometimes he forgot how much he missed Digimon. It reminded him of back when he had Tokomon for a while when he was younger (for some reason during his second adventure Patamon rarely returned to his In Training form). "Hey Calumon?"

"Yeah?" He replied, looking up with his huge eyes.

"Why do you like me so much?" Despite how Takato had said Calumon pretty much goes where the wind blows, TK had found that more often than not when he was out of the house the small digimon found his way over to him.

"You're like me!" He chirped the reply happily, but then paused and tilted his head. "Well, more like you used to. Like there's an echoey thing in a big tunnel." TK frowned, trying to decipher what he meant.

"Thank you? I think?" He replied, and Calumon hopped up happily.

"We should play tag now!" TK rolled his eyes but had a small smile on his face as he got up, a little running around would do him some good. As he stretched out his legs he looked to see if Calumon was still there or if he had already ran off, but oddly enough the small digimon was standing stock still, his ears up and staring intently further into the park. Despite the sunny weather a thick fog was creeping it's way across the park, sending shivers and sparks across TK's skin in a non unfamiliar feeling. He took a step in front of Calumon, glaring at the fog as it overtook them, trying to find any figures in the shadows.

oOo

"Sir, we have another wild one." Riley said into her comms as she started to tap away on her colorful keyboard, keeping up with the flashing colors and their different meanings. "It appears to be attempting to bio-emerge."

"Well stop it." Yamaki's voice was harsh and rough, commanding, and for perhaps the millionth time Riley thought about how different he sounded, what time and stress and sorry had done to him. Though at time he scared her to be around, nothing scared her more than the thought of who he would be or what he would do if left alone.

"Sir, it's too far into the process, I don't think we can."

"Well try anyway." He barked the words, never taking his eyes off of the display in front of him reporting the activity of data bubbling just below the surface of their world. The anomaly was already halfway through, by the time they started to attack it, it would be long gone. She hoped those kids could handle it, hopefully it wasn't anything quite as terrifying as a Devimon. Something easy for them to handle. She knew Yamaki had a dislike for them, but he had his reasons. Not necessarily reasons she could get behind, but reasons.

oOo

"O-Ogremon?" TK asked as the green figure stepped out of the fog. The monster just continued to stare at him and gnash his teeth, so obviously not the one him and his friends had known. Calumon's ears were small once again and he climbed up TK's back to sit on his shoulder, trembling slightly as he gripped TK's hoodie.

"He doesn't look too happy." Calumon warbled out, voice slightly muffled as he buried his face into the fabric. The Ogremon took another step forward and TK reached for his digivice, wondering if it'd be any use in this situation. He already knew all he needed to know about Ogremon, so that display was useless. What he really needed was a partner digimon to help him deal with all this.

"Shoot- Hold on!" He shouted and reached a hand up to keep Calumon in place as he made a desperate lunge to the side as th Ogremon swiped it's club down at the ground. Old instinct die hard, and TK had never been grateful for that.

"Terriermon, go for it!" A somewhat familiar voice cried. Calumon relaxed slightly at the voice. TK felt his digivice vibrate at the proximity to another digidestined. Not a moment too soon.

"Bunny Blast!" The high pitched shout of the Terriermon from earlier filled the air followed by a bright green energy ball that smacked Ogremon in the back, dragging his attention away from TK and Calumon. "Hey big and ugly, try picking on someone half your size!" He yelled with bravado before nimbly dodging to the side. He continued to keep firing his attacks at the Ogremon, too small and quick for the Ogremon to land any hits. Finally he let out one last Bunny Blast and the Ogremon fell backwards into data that drifted into the air. The fog lifted.

"Great job Terriermon!" Henry said as he jogged over, giving his partner a small high five.

"Too easy." Terriermon replied with a small wink.

"That looked like fun!" Calumon hopped off of TK's shoulder and hurried over to play with Terriermon, surprising Henry.

"Oh hey Calumon, I didn't know you were here. What're you up to?" He asked, kneeling down.

"Playing with TK!" Henry glanced up and smiled, and it was with relief that TK realized he was pleased to see him.

"Well it's a good thing you were with him." Henry said resolutely before getting up and walking over. "That explains why my Digivice was buzzing. Thanks for helping Calumon out, little furball can't seem to keep himself out of trouble." He gave a small sigh. "I wish he'd just stick with one of us for once, instead of traipsing around on his own."

"It's not a problem. Happy to help a digimon in need." Tk bit his lip nervously. "Uh, sorry if this is a weird question, but why did the digimon just appear like that? Is that normal?" Henry shook his head.

"No, well, yeah, sort of. We're trying to figure out how they keep coming over like that, and stop them. I think some of more powerful digimon that have been coming over have to do with that." TK nodded, digging the toe of his shoe into the dirt.

"I know I don't have a partner right now, so I'm not that useful, but do you think you could help me catch up? I'd like to know what's going on." Henry beamed.

"Of course! Let me treat you to lunch or something and we can talk about it there." He turned to the two digimon. "Terriermon, come on, we're getting lunch!"

"Good, I'm starved!"

"N-no you don't-" Henry just nudged TK with his elbow.

"Do you want to get caught up or not? It's more for Terriermon than for anyone else, he loves an excuse to eat out." TK paused before catching, up a smile on his face.

oOo

 **Another chapter, another day! Hope this was an enjoyable read - I'm actually having a lot of fun rewriting this story and breathing new life into it. I hope you're having a lovely day, and if not I hope that an update helped you to feel at least a little better :D**


	4. Camping

**YamiKibou-Hope - I'm so glad you're enjoying my story, it really makes my day!**

 **Pubertty7756 - Dude, nothing makes me happier than seeing you review, especially since you're one of the big reason I never gave up on this story 3 A pretty decent amount of events are gonna be reworked and, most notably, pushed back, so it might be a bit until the crest comes into play**

 **Guest - here it is! I do so love Calumon and giving them a good relationship with TK**

 **KingPhoenix666 - Here's the next chapter for ya ;P it should become increasingly clearer who is who as time goes on, since I'm really bad at being subtle, but it makes me happy that you enjoy everyone! I will say that every single main character from Adventure and 02 are in this story, although some don't become noticeable for a while yet.**

 **oOo**

"Camping?" TK asked as he stared at himself in the mirror again. Takato had woken him up at the ungodly hour of 7:00 (okay, so not _that_ ungodly, he'd just really gotten used to waking up at 10). His face hadn't looked quite right since he had arrived in Shinjuku, but he couldn't quite put his finger on it.

"I thought I'd surprise you." Takato said as he shouldered his own bag. "Y-you don't have to go if you don't want to though! I just thought maybe you'd get lonely without me or Guilmon, and Henry and Terriermon are coming too." Takat nervously pressed his fingers together, avoiding eye contact. TK gave a broad smile and put an arm around Takato's shoulders.

"It sounds like a great idea! Let me just grab my stuff." He did wish that Takato had told him earlier, but the boy was obviously really excited and nervous about asking him. It was a little sweet and endearing actually. It reminded him vaguely of the first time Ken had asked to hang out with TK. Shy and mumbling, looking anywhere but at TK's face, fiddling nervously with his hands and their nails bitten down to stumps. Bad habits he had picked up after becoming just… Ken again.

TK tossed some clothes and notebooks into a spare duffle bag the Matsuki's had. Sure he couldn't look for his friends while on a trip, but he doubted that missing one day would actually do any harm. Plus getting out would do him a lot of good. Really there wasn't a downside here.

The pair of them stopped by the park on their way, picking up Guilmon. The excitement coming off of the digimon was palpable, his big tail swaying back and forth at such a speed that TK had to be careful not to get too close to it.

"Where are we going?" TK felt something land on his head. "Looks like fun!" Takato gave a small laugh.

"I guess this really is going to be a big party if everyone's coming." They came up to the school. Most of the class was outside with different bags tucked under their arms. Takato slowed down as they approached, telling TK to wait back with Guilmon, rushing forward to talk to his friends. He took a seat on the ground while he waited. Calumon played with his hair while Guilmon sniffed him and then nosed at his arm until he gave in and began petting him.

"You're a good sport, Guilmon." TK said. "It's a shame you have to stay in the park. Takato should just… rip of the bandaid and tell his parents about you."

"That would be good!" Guilmon said, little ear wing things perking up.

"I guess it would cause a lot of problems. You're really patient." Guilmon smiled as he rested his head on TK's leg.

"I'll always wait for Takato-mon." Deep breaths. Deep breaths TK. Or else he might cry, thinking about Patamon, somewhere in the digital world, waiting. Takato emerged from the group of kids jogging back to us. Guilmon's ears perked up and he quickly walked over to Takato, who gave him a few pats on the head.

"In order to get Guilmon onto the bus Kazu and Kenta are distracting Ms. Asaji, so we need to act fast." TK pulled Calumon out of the air and held him firmly in his arms like a stuffed animal while Takato herded Guilmon onto the bus. TK caught a glimpse of KAzu and Kenta talking to the teacher, waving their arms around and talking loudly. Ms. Asaji looked… vaguely familiar. She actually reminded TK of Mrs. Kamiya. TK follow Takato onto the bus as pushed past all the students to the back of the bus, where they would be furthest from the teacher. Most of the kids TK recognized from having been in the park the other day, giving Guilmon high fives as they made their progress back.

"Alright now Guilmon, you have to stay quiet during the whole ride, okay?" Takato looked his digimon in the eyes as he said it, doing is best to wrangle a serious look onto his face.

"Okay." Guilmon said, a little disappointed, and Takato reached into his backpack and pulled out a few blankets.

"Here, I was thinking you could take a nap or something." TK smiled as Guilmon gladly took the blankets, wrapping himself up in them and rolling around, Calumon jumping down and playing with him.

"It's neat you could make it, TK." Henry said from his seat, arms wrapped around Terriermon.

"Welcome to the torture bus." Terriermon chirped happily.

"W-what?" Tk asked, taken aback. Henry just rolled his eyes and gently batted at Terriermon.

"You know I'm right, Henry." The digimon replied stubbornly.

"Don't pay attention to him." Henry inserted, sending Terriermon a glare. "He just hates long car rides." Oh, that TK could understand. It had been a while since he'd gone on a car ride with fidgety digimon…

"We could sing some songs!" Calumon offered, to which there were various very loud 'no!'s throughout the bus.

"What about a good bus game? Do you guys know concentration?" Takato tried. "Oh, I guess it's hard to play with your small hands…" A very long car ride indeed.

oOo

"I know I have it somewhere…" Mr. Matsuki fumbled through another box of items, grunting in dismay when what he was searching for wasn't found.

"You sure you don't want some help babe?" His wife asked, peeking into the storage room. "Two heads are better than one you know." Really his wife was right.

"No, I got it." Mr. Matsuki waved her off anyway.

"Okayyyyyy, but if you ever change your mind…" She said, adjusting her bandana and giving him a very pointed look before walking into the room, placing a hand on his back. "Let me know if you change your mind." She gently rubbed a few circles before getting up to go.

"Wait, I did remember something." Mrs. Matsuki paused, seeing her husband gesture for her to come closer. "It's… this!" He gave her a quick peck on the cheek, earning a soft, special smile on his wife's face.

"Oh, Mizuki." She playfully batted the back of his head. "Tell me when you need some _real_ help." He watched her go, smiling, living for a moment just in the flutter of his heart, before turning and facing the towers of boxes once again. The remnants of who he used to be. He had never unpacked them, didn't have the heart to throw them out, so instead they had just rotted here. Cardboard monoliths gathering dust.

He sighed and pulled another one over, sifting through the contents. His old jacket. Papers from school. A few different drawing he had done in his free time - very badly done in crayon, but the awfully colored blue companion in the pictures was what made him hold on to them.

"Ah-ha!" He cried as he pulled out a flash drive, holding it up with a broad grin on his face. If this was here then the papers… Sure enough, under a few more miscellaneous knick nacks was a manilla envelope, a letter taped to the front. Emblazoned on the front in bold sharpie was the words 'To Davis'.

Mr. Matsuki pulled it out. There was no need to read the letter, he'd gone over it enough times. It was broken down simply enough into 'in case you ever wanted to go over things again.' At the time the gift had seemed superfluous and even frustrating. What with his intentions to start a new life, the last things he needed was to be getting more things from his old one. But now he was insanely grateful for the pairs thoughtfulness. Almost greedily he pulled out the papers, the files on the disappearance of Takeru Takaishi and everything they knew about the circumstances of it.

It was time to re-evaluate the evidence.

oOo

"Fresh air! Stable ground, oh how I've missed you." Henry collapsed onto the ground as he exited the school bus. In the background Ms. Asaji was telling kids where the the tents were and the approved placed for campsites, but TK's group was just excited to be out of the Box of Pain. All the digimon (well, Tk wasn't sure about Calumon) we're rookie level, which roughly equaled the mindset of a smaller child. Which was perhaps the most exhausting thing TK had ever realized when it became clear that no, none of them were willing to take a nap on the ride. They'd much rather play ever game on the entire planet except the quiet game. Thank goodness they had chosen seats in the back of the bus, far, FAR away from the teacher.

"Alright, we should probably grab our tents." Takato said, just thankful to be out in the open air again. "I, uh, can't. I have to get Guilmon as far away from Ms. Asaji as possible." Kenta and Kazu easily stepped forward.

"No worries, Chumley, your best buds have got your back. Just go find a good spot - we'll find ya." The pair left, and once again TK was reminded of how the digidestineds supported each other. He really was surprised that they didn't have partners. In fact, the whole concept of there only being three, ahem, _tamers_ here was boggling his mind.

The follower the crowd to the campsite, carrying their luggage (plus Kenta and Kazu's stuff as a nicety) with them. They found a nice spot on the edge of the group on the opposite side from the teacher's tents.

"Anyway, after deliberating at length, we've decided we get TK." Kazu announced and he and Kenta approached them, pulling the bags of tents with them.

"M-me?" TK asked, surprised.

"Of course. We want the cool, secret Tamer." Kazu replied steadfastly.

"Also you don't come in a package deal with Guilmon." Kenta inserted, and Guilmon made a shocked and sad noise.

"You don't like me?" He whimpered, and immediately the pair turned to him, apologies flowing out.

"It's not that we don't like you big guy! You just take up lots of space!" Kenta tried to explain.

"Also a tail. You have a huge tail. That's an entire additional appendage we have to take into account." Guilmon was still looking up at them sadly, and TK could feel guilt radiating off of the pair.

"Hey, you get to sleep with me and Henry though!" Takato said, and immediately Guilmon perked up, a wide and goofy smile on his face.

"Sleepover with Takato-mon!" They embraced in a hug, Takato beaming at his partner.

Putting up a tent turned out to be something on par with rocket science. There were so many long sticks they had to use, and then try to get into the holes while maintaining tension on both sides, and also not get bowled over by the playing digimon. Eventually they managed to get something that at least resembled a tent up, a feat that they were all very proud of.

"Hey, I think I'm going to take Guilmon out for a walk, will you guys be willing to cover for us?" Kazu and Kenta gave firm nods of confirmation.

"Sure thing, but I have no promise of the totally legit excuse I'll make up for you. Ms. Asaji just might think you've gone to the bathroom for three hours." Kazu teased, tongue out. Henry grabbed Terriermon and started to leave before pausing and glancing back.

"Hey if you want to tag along you can come and hang out with the Digimon." TK appreciate the offer, and a part of his wanted to go so bad, but really it didn't make sense. The digimon should go off and enjoy themselves with their partners.

"I'm good. If too many kids are missing the teachers will get suspicious." He waved the two off and the four of them ran off into the woods, their digimon already giddy with excitement.

"Takato and Guilmon already ran off, huh?" TK glanced over to see a girl with reddish hair approach them, glancing around. Her recognized her from the bus ride, Jeri if he recalled correctly. She had been one of the people who had helped them survive the trip by entertaining Guilmon, seeming to really enjoy playing with him and teaching him games like cat's cradle (which was incredibly difficult with his claws, but it certainly kept him occupied for a bit). It was also pretty obvious that her and Takato had light crushes on each other, the kind that can only happen when you're so young. TK was only a few years older, but with all he'd been through it felt like decades.

"Yeah, off to have fun without us." Kenta lamented as he lobbed a couple sleeping bags into one of the tents.

"I don't know, they're starting up some arts and crafts projects that look pretty neat." Jeri said and Kazu's head shot up.

"Did you say arts and crafts?!" He exclaimed. "I am the KING of arts and crafts." He did a few fist bumps and kicked his backpack into his tent, zipping it up. "What are we waiting for, let's head over!"

oOo

 **So obviously I won't rush this section as much as I did last time, so it will bleed into the next chapters :) I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter and I'm excited to write the next one! Have a lovely day 3**


	5. Bracelets

**YamiKibou-Hope - Thank you! I love Kenta so I'm glad he came out entire class knowing about Guilmon is just so cute 3**

 **KingPhoenix666 - now I'm so curious as to who you thought Mr. Matsuki was before the reveal!**

 **Puberty7756 - I hope that what I'm trying to get at will become more obvious a little later on! It's just a small detail to continue to attempt to justify aspects of the story. I sppose you'll just have to wait and find out :3c**

oOo

"Wait, how did you do that Kenta?" TK and Kazu leaned over as the boy effortlessly flicked the strings of paracord together into another link.

"By following the directions." He replied, gesturing to the instruction sheet in front of him.

"Now I know that's a lie, because I followed it and I got this." Kazu held up his big ball of knots he'd spent the first two minutes making and the past ten minutes attempting to unravel. TK glanced at the progress he'd made on his own bracelet, which is to say, none. He'd gotten his fingers tangled in his knots somehow twice already.

"It really isn't that hard." Jeri said from across the table, holding up her finished bracelet. Kazu and TK stared at it with slightly open mouths in shock.

"How the heck did you do that so fast?!" Kazu shouted, emphatically waving around his bundle of knots.

"I was hoping to make one for Guilmon and Takato too since they aren't here." Jeri gave a soft smile as she sifted through some more cords, picking out red and black. "Oh, maybe I'll make one for Terriermon and Henry too… do you think Calumon will want one?"

"That's a lot of bracelets." Tk said, eyes wide, and Jeri gave a shy smile.

"With the pace you two are going at they'll all be done before you are." Kenta inserted with a somewhat smug smile as he continued to weave his cords together. "I can help you make them when I finish mine, Jeri." They worked in relative silence for a bit, TK finally getting a bit of a handle on how to thread the cords through, leaning over to help Kazu with his mess.

"So how long have you guys known Takato?" He asked, and both the boys instantly broke out into smiles.

"Oh, Chumley? Like, only our whole lives!" TK raised his eyebrows. No wonder they seemed so close. "Well, Jeri here's only known Takato for a few years, but Kenta and I have known him since before we could talk!"

"Really? That's… a long time." It was weird to think, but the only person he'd known that long was his parents and Matt - the other digidestined he'd met when he was young, sure, but not _that_ young.

"Oh yeah." Kenta nodded as he finished his bracelet, turning it this was and that with an appraising eye. "Our parents used to constantly dump us at the others house to watch us. Playdates were the name of the game."

"Mostly it was Takato's parents that got lumped with us. Both Kenta and I have single parents, so when we were young they used to drop us off at the Matsuki's while they went to work. Even after that I had their phone number drilled into my head so much that I pretty much knew it better than my own name!" Kazu exclaimed, and gave another firm and earnest tug at his knot, which had somehow gotten bigger.

"You guys have single parents?" Tk asked, and then placed his hands over his mouth in mortification. "I-I'm sorry I don't mean to-" He knew how he could feel if someone went around prodding him about his parents. Kazu just waved his hand.

"Don't worry about it - I don't mind talking about my super awesome mom." He adjusted hat a little, focusing intently on his big mess of cords.

"Jeri, what colors do you think will work best for Takato?" The conversation drifted from there, and TK was glad for it, still feeling guilty for his nosiness and not wanting to have to explain his own family himself. Instead he turned his attention and focus onto the bracelet he was attempting to put together, trying to hold back the tears that pricked his eyes as he thought about his mom and his dad, about Matt, and how much he missed them.

Takato and Henry didn't show back up with their digimon until dinner, which was hot dogs that they got to roast on the fire themselves. Kazu had to be careful he didn't light his 'bracelet' on fire, his bracelet being the big old knot he had made that he had just stuck his hand through one of the loops. The boys naturally got a ton of hot dogs and tried to fit as many onto their sticks at a time in order to make enough for Guilmon and Terriermon as well, who were off playing with Calumon in the woods for now. After they had roasted their hotdogs their small group hid away in the trees to enjoy their dinner with the digimon before the teachers had their last activity for the day - scary stories - then lights out time in the tents.

"Something smells good!" Guilmon hurried up to them almost immediately, sniffing them up and down, tongue lolling out.

"Thank goodness you guys showed up, I thought I might have to scavenge for berries like some kind of animal!" Terriermon exclaimed, greedily taking a hotdog from Henry's plate and wolfing it down in two bites.

"Looks like they've been enjoying themselves." TK said to Takato as he watched them. Kenta, Kazu, and Jeri were handing out the bracelets from earlier, much to the glee of the digimon. Realizing that Terriermon had such a small wrist, Jeri was helping him fit it around the base of one of his ears.

"Yeah, they really deserve it." Takato agreed, taking a seat on the ground, back to a tree as he ate some of his chips. "They've had to do a lot of fighting recently." Tk took a seat next to him, nodding his head sympathetically.

"It's sweet that you guys are so concerned for them." TK smiled as he watched Kenta prepare to take a bite out of his own hotdog before Guilmon came in and ate it right out of his hand.

"I mean, you'd do the same for your digimon, right?" Takato glanced over at TK, who immediately looked down at his shoes.

"Of course. If I ever see him again."

"I'm sure you will." Takato said confidently. "I guess it's just taking your Digimon longer than it took Guilmon to get here for some reason." TK tried to give Takato a smile, but it faltered as doubt continued to creep in from the corner of his mind.

"Yeah…" TK sat and was fully prepared to let himself mope a bit, but instead Calumon plopped onto his head.

"Time for a game! You're it!" They cried and ran off. With a fond grin TK got back to his feet. Immediately the other digimon and kids ran away from him, laughing as they stayed out of reach. No point in letting himself fall into that dark hole - hadn't he learned by now that holding onto hope pays off? They continued to goof off for a while until finally Kazu (in an odd moment of responsibility) told them that they were expected to be back at the campsite by now.

The teacher whose name TK couldn't remember told them a ghost story, trying to scare the kids until he looked beyond them, his face going sheet white. TK was almost positive he had seen one of the digimon when he cried 'monster!', making most of the kids jump out of their skin. Ms. Asaji just gave him the most unimpressed look TK had ever seen. After that the kids, bleary eyed, went back to their tents for the night. He wouldn't be surprised if Takato and Henry ended up staying up to do more things with their partners, he might've even asked to join them but he felt exhausted, instead letting himself sink into his sleeping bag as sleep overtook him.

oOo

Ms. Asaji walked around, toting Mr. Mori behind her. At every shadow he seemed to jump, every single whisper of children in their tent or rustle heard from a sleeping bag sent shivers down his spine. She just rolled her eyes at his nonsense.

"W-what was that?!" He exclaimed, point directly at one of the children's tents. Ms. Asaji had to dig down deep in order to not just facepalm herself.

"Mori, it's just the children preparing for bed. There are no monsters." She said sternly. He continued to quake in his shoes.

"I-I'm sure of what I saw Ms. Asaji! Come on, you must believe in monsters." He pleaded, and she just shook her head as if to clear away the loose thoughts the word brought up.

"Not since I was a child."

"Then what about ghosts?!" He asked, searching desperately for validation. Ms. Asaji paused, mind drifting to the voices that could have been the wind she'd been hearing this trip, the glimpses of a blonde haired boy that she could never seem to get a good look at, the laughter that echoed among the children's laughs.

"I don't believe in monsters." She repeated, and left it at that.

oOo

TK was walking the hallways of his school. Well, he kept telling himself it was his school. The hall's extended and curved and intersecting in ways that his middle school never had. There was a voice calling his name from somewhere in the depths, or maybe hiding in the shadows, it was impossible to tell. Everytime it cried out is sounded like someone else. At first it had been Matt, yelling in pain. Then Patamon, desperately. That was followed by the other digidestined like Kari and Joe and Cody. He continued to dive deeper and deeper into the winding hallways.

The further he went, the higher the water got, until he was simply trying to run under water, the tide pushing against him. Finally, a person emerged from the murky black. There was Kari, hair floating freely around her in the water. Her face was expressionless as she glanced at him.

"How can you help anyone when you have no hope?" She asked curiously, and TK looked down to see a gaping hole from his chest, oozing orange sludge pouring from it onto the ground - which didn't make sense if they were under water.

"I-" He glanced up to see that Kari was gone, vanished in the water. The voices continued to call from somewhere deeper. TK tried to fight against the water, but suddenly he couldn't breath, the water forcing itself down his throat and into his nose, leaving his lungs burning and begging for air.

He had to reach them, they needed him-

Tk surged awake with deep and desperate breaths, eyes wide and panicked, struggling as he felt restricted, his arm's couldn't move he was trapped he was trapped he was… in a sleeping bag. Of course. In the panic of waking up he had forgotten where he was. He slowly extracted himself from the sleeping bag, or as he would now be calling it, death burrito. Untangling himself he glanced around to see sunlight streaming into the tent, Kenta and Kazu already gone. He must have slept through the wake up for the morning.

Stretching out his limbs and getting dressed into proper clothes for the day he emerged from his tent to the delicious smell of breakfast emanating from the picnic tables. Kenta and Kazu were already there, along with Jeri. Henry and Takato were missing for mostly obvious reasons.

"Enjoy yourself, sleeping beauty?" Kazu asked, wiggling his eyebrows.

"We didn't want to wake you up, you looked like you needed the sleep." Kenta explained, grabbing his bag that had been occupying the seat next to Jeri and reserving it for TK.

"We were going to grab you some food, but we didn't want it to be cold when you got here." Jeri added. TK nodded his thanks and munched down on his breakfast greedily, thankful for the food. After breakfast Takato and Henry emerged from the forest with empty plates, and it took no leap of logic to know what they had been up to. The schedule was pretty low key for today, and most of the kids seemed particularly excited about the prospect of swimming and water games. With mild embarrassment TK realized that he didn't in fact have a swimsuit to wear. All it really meant was that most of the day was spent with TK sitting off to the side, fiddling with his digivice and hoping that eventually it would start working. He was pretty sure that it used to have some kind of function that would show where other digivices are located, and that would definitely help him track down the others.

"So, where's your partner?" Jeri was back in normal clothes, though her hair was still soaking wet. She kept running her brush through it. TK pushed one of the buttons again.

"I don't know." TK said, looking down.

"Have you met him before?" She asked, turning her head to the side curiously.

"Yeah, and somehow we keep managing to get taken away from each other." He frowned, trying some button together only to be greeted with a still black screen. "It happens… a lot."

"Parting with someone is hard." Jeri replied solemnly, and TK could tell from the way she said it that she knew exactly what she was saying, and he could sense a kindred spirit in her. She knew sorrow like he did. Hesitantly he stretched out his arm before carefully placing it around her shoulders. She seemed surprised, but then turned and gave him a soft smile. He smiled back. "Oh, I forgot!" She exclaimed and reached into her pocket. "I made you this!" She pulled out a yellow and white paracord bracelet. "Since you couldn't manage to make one earlier!" She exclaimed with a proud smile.

TK was at a loss of word, reaching out and gingerly taking it.

"Th-thank you." He stuttered. "C-can you help me put it on?" She nodded and snapped it onto his wrist. A perfect fit.

"You're a really nice person TK. I'm sure you and your partner will be reunited." She gave a bold smile again. "I think Kenta and Kazu we're talking about this way to make huge bubbles, do you want to go and check it?" TK nodded and got up. He would continue to try not to let himself fall into despair. Everything would be okay. He'd find the other and find out how he was supposed to help everyone. He _would_ be reunited with Patamon.

oOo

 **I hope you enjoyed this chapter! I know it's kind of low key as chapters go, and this is about all the time I'm gonna devote to this episode, but I figured I should at least give it more attention than I did in my previous draft. Have a lovely day! 3**


	6. The Mystery of the Blue Card

**YamiKibou-Hope - dude that's a super interesting story idea! I like it!**

 **Oathkeeper16 - I'm so glad you're liking it! It's good to see you - sadly it's gonna be a hot second before TK gets reunited with Patamon :( Imma try to take my time with this rewrite, and that means pushing some events that I rushed in the first take back**

 **Arthogawa - thank you for the awesome review! I came up with the story idea a loooong time ago, way before Tri (would you believe me if I told you that I only just watched Tri this past weekend?) so the events of Tri will most likely not take place in this timeline since it would mess with the story too much, sorry! There are a few ideas or concepts I might take from Tri, but I can't promise anything.**

 **The story itself takes place (for TK, 2 years after the events of 02) for Tamers before they go to the digital world when the Deva's are first appearing - I believe I'm on episode 17? I'm going through Tamers chronologically. TK's and Calumon's relationship does have a reason, I promise.**

 **Puberty7756 - I'm glad you're liking the interactions - I've always loved Kenta and Kazu and I really want them to get chances to shine in the story :D It might be a hot second before TK get's a chance to really get involved with the fights, sorry!**

 **Important note - Henry's siblings in this chapter ARE NOT ocs - they're actually his canon siblings that just aren't mentioned or seen a lot during the TV show. I always wanted to include them in a story, so here they are now :)**

 **oOo**

"Seven cards, the perfect deck with the perfect number!" Jeremie said triumphantly, looking proudly at his cards. "With such a perfect deck, maybe I can even defeat the Digimon Queen." He let himself live in that fantasy for a moment as he made his way down the streets of the electronics area. So caught up in his hypothetical future he didn't notice the man in front of him until they had run into each other, causing him to fall to the ground, perfect deck spilling out onto the ground.

"Hey, watch it!" He shouted, glancing over at the man's retreating form. "Idiot." He mumbled under his breath, bending down and scooping up his cards indignantly. "I swear if they got scratched up… huh?" Pausing, Jeremie held up the unknown card. Some kind of support card with a bunch of Motimon on it. Looked useless, plus having an extra card threw off his perfect number. Making his way to the train station he turned the card this way and that, trying to decide that to do with it. He could just throw it away, but maybe he could get some sucker to trade it for a better card, maybe start working on a secondary deck.

Jeremie took a seat on the train, glancing around for anyone he recognized. Anyone gullible enough to sucker into…

"Hey Kenta!"

oOo

"I don't want it!" Kenta exclaimed loudly. "You can take it." He shoved the card at Henry, who had just barely finished a card battle with one of the other kids at the playground. Henry took it was a confused look, tilting his head slightly at Kenta and taking a peek at the card.

"Why don't you want a card? Isn't any card useful?" He asked and Kents shook his head vehemently.

"Yeah, but I've never seen this card before. We're pretty sure it's a fake, and no one with a shred of honor plays with fakes!" He crossed his arms and then reached up to adjust his classes. "But uh," He added, suddenly somewhat meek. "...maybe it could be useful for you guys, you know? I don't know if a fake will work but…" He pushed his pointer fingers together nervously. "Anyway I gotta go, lunch time and all that." The boy ran off before Henry could thank him.

"O-kay." Henry said aloud as he glanced at the card.

"Well, what card is it?" Terriermon asked, hopping up onto Henry's head.

"It's not a digimodify card, looks like a support card." He frowned. "I've never tried a support card through the digivive, I mean, I doubt it'll just summon a bunch of Motimon." On his head he felt Terriermon give a shrug.

"No time like the present, might as well try it out." Henry nodded and began to swipe the card. He only got it about a quarter of the way through before it jammed and he yanked it back out, groaning in disappointment.

"Looks like it is a fake if it's not going through." He said with a little bit of disappointment.

"Wait Henry, look!" Terriermon exclaimed, pushing his head down. Henry gave a small gasp as he watched the card began to glow with a bright white light. When it died down the card had transformed from an ordinary if useless card to one of the blue cards.

"What the…" His eyes widened and he turned it side to side as if to make sure it was real. "Where the heck did Kenta _get_ this?!" Terriermon was doing a happy little dance off to the side, obviously very proud of himself for the card ending up being something so important. "I guess this is our chance to find out more about the blue cards."

"We should let your dad look at it! He knows those kind of things, right?" Terriermon asked, grabbing the card from his hands and inspecting it.

"Yeah, you're right. Let's head home, hopefully he'll get off work soon." The walk to Henry's apartment building was relatively quiet. For the portions where they had to go through heavily populated areas Terriermon had to do his whole stuffed animal charade, so they couldn't talk much about what they were hoping to get out of this expedition. Maybe a way to figure out how the cards were made? Maybe make new ones for themselves even? It sure would be easier to know that they can digivolve without having to rely so heavily on the cards. What if something happened and they didn't have them?

He climbed the steps up to the top floor, walking down the familiar hallway to the familiar door with the macaroni art proudly pronouncing 'Welcome' on the front. Henry gave Terriermon one last look and his partner gave a small, minute nod and a wink. Taking a deep breath, he grabbed the cold doorknob and opened the door.

"Henry!" Instantly, almost like an explosion, Suzie burst into his field of view enveloping Henry is as big of a hug as her small arms would allow. "And you brought Terriermon!"

"Of course." He replied with a laugh, and she reached up to grab him from Henry's arms. He relinquished his hold and let him slip through his fingers, giving him a sorry look.

"Time to play Pretty Princess." She cried happily, hugging Terriermon close to her chest. Henry saw him give a terrified look, eyes wide.

"M-maybe instead you should hang out with us. Out here. Away from the costumes." Henry tried, and saw Suzie thinking it over, even making a little hmmm sound.

"Yeah, we can do four player co-op." Henry would have hugged his brother in relief as Rinchei held up one of the spare controllers. In background his other sister Jaarin just leaned forward closer to the screen, giving a triumphant cry as the Rinchei's character died. Suzie harumphed, squeezing Terriermon harder eliciting a small, audible wheeze.

"I hate video games." She pouted, and Henry gave Rinchei a desperate, pleading gaze.

"I'll…" Rinchei gave a great sigh, and tossed Henry a 'you owe me' look. "I'll let you have the Player 1 controller." Even Henry raised his eyes at that, Jaarin giving a shout of offense. Rinchei _always_ had the Player 1 controller, he said that it was his birthright as the oldest. The Player 1 controller was by far the best controller, followed of course by the player two controller, and so forth, meaning that Suzie and Henry always got the crappy second-hand-cheap-as-can-be ones.

"Okay!" Suzie said happily, bouncing her way over and jumping onto the couch, happily accepting the prized controller. Henry knew he'd pay for this later, but the look of pure elation on Terriermon's face on escaping his fate of being trapped in a princess dress for the next three hours made it all worth it. They sat down and played some fighting game that Henry was neutral towards for the next hour or two until finally there was the creak of the front door opening and the warm sound of his father's voice. Suzie popped off of the couch and excitedly ran up to his dad, who scooped her up and gave her a kiss on the cheek.

"And how is my perfect princess today?" He asked and she leaned hugged him around his neck.

"Great! Rinchei let me be player 1!" She exclaimed happily. His father's eyebrows raised and he glanced over to see sure, there was Rinchei, brandishing the player 4 controller as he completely decimated his siblings.

"Well, that was very nice of him." He said, a tone of awe in his voice.

"Welcome home honey." Henry's mom came over and gave his dad a quick kiss, smiling at him. "Did you have a good day at work?"

"Always." He replied with a grin. Henry reached over and grabbed Terriermon, hefting him back up in his arms and meekly approached his dad.

"Uh, dad?" His father turned away from his mom, eyebrows slightly raised at seeing Henry approach him. "Could you… help me with something?"

"Of course Henry, tell whatever it is you need." Taking a deep breath Henry shifted Terriermon onto his side and reached into his pocket and withdrew the card, holding it out to his dad, the blue sheen reflecting the light. The gleam caught his dad's eye, and the peaceful happy smile vanished, his father's eyebrows knitting together and lines of worry on his face deepening.

"I need to know what this is." Henry heard his father's breath catch in his throat. "Can you help me?" He kept his eyes on his father, watching as his dad's gaze flickered from the card to Henry a few times.

"Yeah, I can… I can help you with that. Let's go into my office." Mr. Wong's office was a carefully organized place that he seldom let his kids enter. Full of various computers, most of which his father had told him were from an old job of his. His dad moved into the room and pulled out something from one of his cabinets, a big blocky piece of equipment, and plugged it into his main computer.

"Woah, what's that?" Henry asked, looking over his dads shoulder.

"It's kind of like a high tech scanner made specifically for cards." Henry's dad replied, pushing a button and allowing for the tray to pop out. "May I see the card."

"Of course." Henry replied, eagerly handing it over. It fit into the tray perfectly, disappearing into the scanner. His dad typed a few commands into the computer as the scanner whirred with life. Eventually ones and zeroes began to appear on the computer's screen. "What does it mean?" He asked, curiously leaning forward. He could feel Terriermon in his arms do the same.

"Nothing yet, give it a few more seconds." His dad replied easily, not once taking his eyes off of the changing numbers. After another moment his father let out a small gasp and Henry's head whipped around to look at his dad, whose eyes were widened in shock.

"What? What is it?" He asked, but instead his father stood up and shook his head as if trying to clear it off something.

"N-nothing. It's nothing Henry. Just a bunch of… meaningless data." His father left the room, but Henry couldn't help but to feel like his father was instead running away from something.

oOo

"I have to agree with you Henry, that is weird." Takato said from his spot, sitting next to Guilmon on the grass. Henry had decided to talk to the others about the card, reasoning that the mysterious origins and appearance of the card affected all of them. To the surprise of the others, even Rika had come, standing off to the side, turning the card this way and that in her hand.

"What does the card do again?" TK whispered to Takato. The whole card schtick was a brand new concept to him.

"It lets our digimon digivolve to ultimate." Takato explained, and TK just kind of blinked at that. He could see why it was a big deal to them now, but all that did was bring up more questions. TK supposed it made sense - as far as he could tell, they didn't have crests or anything. But it still seemed strange to him that they relied on something like a card for that - did the card hold the same power as the crests did? He wished Izzy was around, he would be able to figure it out.

"So where are you going with this?" Rika asked, raising an unimpressed eyebrow. Takato fumbled a bit but Henry just rolled his eyes at her attitude.

"I'm saying we should try and track down where the card came from - maybe we could find out how to get more or how to digivolve to ultimate without the card. We should be finding answers." Henry said sternly, and Takato was already nodding, TK found himself inclined to agree with Henry as well. That just left…

"Fine. I'd like to digivolve on my own terms anyway." Rika replied. "Renamon, you'll be able to follow us?" She asked, and from somewhere above TK heard the reply.

"Of course, Rika."

"Terriermon, you'll probably have to fake it for most of the time." Henry said sympathetically.

"I can take it." His partner replied. Takato turned to Guilmon with a sad frown on his face, cupping his chin under his hands.

"I'm sorry buddy, I think you have to sit this one out."

"But Takato…" Guilmon whined, and TK could see how much Takato wanted to let him come.

"We'll be back as fast as we can. And I'll bring you some bread." Instantly Guilmon perked up, tongue lolling out happily.

"Yay! Bread!" The group set out to the playground, relieved to see that Kenta was still there, hanging out with Kazu and few other kids, trading cards and playing different rounds. If the bracket drawn in the sand was any indication than it was a tournament.

"Hey, Kenta!" Henry shouted, jogging forward to meet the boy who was sitting off to the side, rearranging his deck.

"Oh, hi Henry." Kanta gave a small smile.

"I wanted to ask you, where did you get that card earlier?" That caught the boys attention as he adjusted his glasses.

"Why, what happened to it? Is it useful?" He asked before Rika shoved Henry aside, crossing her arms.

"It's not important, where did you get it Glasses." Kenta scooched back a bit under Rika's cold stare.

"I-I got it from Jeremie, on the train. I think he was hanging out around the electronic area earlier?" He stammered out, and Rika nodded, already brusquely making her way to the train station.

"Sorry." Takato tossed over his shoulder to Kenta as the small group moved on, hopping onto the train and making their way downtown to the shopping district. Rika sat in pensive silence the entire time, but Takato was excitedly bouncing his leg up and down, a goofy grin on his face.

TK pulled out his digivice, clicking a few buttons, and was delighted when it actually worked for once. The small screen showed a grid around him, three red blinking dots next to his own yellow dot. As long as they were out on the town it was a perfect time to try and see if he could find any of the others. Hopefully they had found as good of a situation as he had at being transported to this place. A few trips to the digital world had taught him how to trust the others and their resourcefulness. It was annoying that his digivice wasn't working half the time, meaning that this was one of the first times since he'd been here that he'd managed to get this function to work. Long glances out the window were interspersed with peeks at his screen, hoping to see a new red dot pop up.

The shopping district was abuzz with people, and TK tried to stay close to the others, and as the crowds congested more and more he reached forward to try and grab Takato's shirt before he disappeared in the crowd, only for his hand to come away empty, holding air. Taking a deep breath and trying not to feel overwhelmed by being alone in an unfamiliar place, he did his best to find the electronics section, where the others surely were.

Passing shop after shop finally there was a hub of primarily video games and other gadgets. TK breathed a sigh of relief as he stood on his tiptoes, looking over the sea of people, struggling to find a pair of goggles, or Rika's easy to see red hair.

His eyes tripped over one figure and he backtracked carefully to try and find them again. A man hustling through the crowd. His face wasn't to TK, but there was a familiar red/maroonish tint to his hair that blew in the breeze. TK felt his digivice buzz, and he wasn't sure what it was from, but he took a step towards the man and-

"TK!" TK whipped around to Takato waving at him excitedly. "Hey, we thought we lost you!" Rika and Henry quickly appeared from the crowd behind him. "So, it turns out that Jeremie is actually way back at the park, so we're heading back." TK sent one last glance over his shoulder in an attempt to locate the man, but he was long gone. A glance at his digivice revealed that indeed, they were the only dots on it. He must be drawing lines where there weren't any.

"Cool, let's go." He gave a wide grin in an attempt to compensate for the disappointment filling his stomach. For a second he had been so excited at the prospect of finding a familiar and welcoming face…

Takato rambled the entire train ride back, discussing theories back and forth with Henry and imagining all the things they could do if they could just find out the 'secret of the card' as he had taken to calling it.

"It's like we're real detectives!" Takato said excitedly.

"It's like you're real idiots." Rika replied, frowning.

"Woah, no need to be hostile!" Henry inserted, giving Rika a disappointed look. "Why did you even come if you're in such a bad mood?

"I want to find out about the card, I'd just prefer if we didn't have to jump through hoops all across Shinjuku." Henry raised an eyebrow. "Also my mom's coming home today, and I'd like to avoid _her_ as much as possible."

"You don't have a good relationship with your mom?" TK asked, and Rika shot him a glare potent enough he was shocked he was still alive.

"None of your business." She hissed out and turned away from them very deliberately, arms folded. Their stop couldn't come soon enough, the small group rushing out of the train and hurrying onto the steps of the park. Almost immediately Takato recognized Jeremie, hurrying over.

"Where did you find that card you gave Kenta?" Henry asked fervently.

"Just in the city, by the electronic department, why? Was it rare?" TK could hear Rika groan next to him at the prospect of having to go back on the train _again_ in this wild goose chase.

"Look, you aren't telling us something, spill." Rika ground out the words, eyes narrowed into daggers like a needle spray from a Togemon.

"I- uh- I didn't get it from a pack or anything. A man just, bumped into me, and it was suddenly there."

"What did he look like?" Takato asked, excited by the lead. "Was he tall, short, fat, skinny? Anything will help us out." Jeremie shook his head.

"It all happened so fast, I don't really remember it." Takato's shoulders drooped in defeat.

"Well, what do you remember?" Henry persisted. Jeremie's eyes looked past Henry to Rika's stony expression.

"I remember… he was wearing a long, blue jacket with yellow paw prints on it."

oOo

The sun was setting through the window as the door to the small apartment in downtown Shinjuku opened, the man walked in with a yawn, hanging his long blue jacket up on the coat rack. He walked into the kitchen and pulled out a frozen pizza, sticking it into the oven before walking into a side room, pitch black save for the glow of a computer screen. He raised an eyebrow and entered, turning on the light switch as he went. The effect was instantaneous as the man with red hair flailed in his seat at the computer, keyboard flying, shocked by the sudden light.

"Oh, uh, you're home." The redhead said meekly, warmth rushing to his cheeks, embarrassed by his display. "Guess I didn't notice how late it was." He said sheepishly. The brunette just waved him off.

"When have I ever been one to complain.?" The redhead opened his mouth. "Don't answer that." He shrugged and turned back to his computer, tapping away. "Did you find the parts you needed?"

"Of course, I'm working on integrating them right now. The extra boost to the server should really help us. What about you? Did you get the card to them?" The redhead reached over and tweaked a few wires.

"Yeah, I'm pretty sure it made it to one of them. You're sure they're what we think they are?" With a confident nod, the red head grabbed something from their pocket, flashing it at his companion and eliciting a shocked gasp. "After what happened today, I'm sure of it."

oOo

Mr. Wong was on the roof of his apartment building, enjoying the night air on his face. Tai Chi calmed his nerves, especially when he was younger and trying to make it through school. Frustrated by his studying not showing in his grades, not matter how feverishly he tried, he had turned to a friend who had taught him the art of Tai Chi. Without it he had no idea how he would have gotten through college. Usually, it worked. Today however his mind just wandered, continually going back to the young friend who had taught him the forms, as if he might look over and see him next to him, watching him carefully to make sure he did it right. A ghost of the past that he had thought was gone forever, who he had not thought of so directly in years.

' _It had been so simple back then, at the start.'_ He thought to himself, breathing deeply and letting the city air fill his lungs. ' _We just wanted to see them again. To find the answers we'd been looking for. We were fools.'_ He sighed out a breath.

"What happened to us?" Mr. Wong asked the sky, as if it would open up and tell him. But it remained silent, the stars twinkling as if to laugh at his ignorance.

oOo

 **I hope you enjoyed the chapter! Have a lovely day!**


	7. Get Ready to Rumble

**Sorry this took so long! After my computer had it's problems it was a couple of months before I got a computer, and tbh by then I forgot about my fics I had been working on. But now I intend on working on this story again! I can't promise it will be as fast as it used to be, as I'll be working on homework, some of my other unfinished fanfictions, and personal projects, but I think getting back into writing will be good for me! So have this chapter 7, finally, after all this time.**

 **Yamikibou-hope : sadly it will probably be some time before PAtamon comes into the story :T. Uhhhh I'm not really sure about Azulongmon, tbh I don't even remember what role he plays in Tamers? And I'm not sure yet if I'm incorporating aspects of the Tri canon into the characters.**

 **Arthogawa : It's so interesting to see your theories! I just hope that the actual fic will live up to your expectations.**

 **Oathkeeper16 : I'm so glad you enjoyed the last chapter! I really like a lot of the side characters so I was hoping to high light them in a few scenes.**

 **Apollo Sensation : Hope this chapter is a least a little longer for your liking**

 **Puberty7756 : thank you for your kind words :) Finally got this out!**

 **OmnicromXR : sorry about the POV discrepencies, the original version of this was first person but I didn't like how that sounded, too confusing. Sometimes while rewriting it I slip up. I'm playing fast and loose with a lot of the rules rn, so like the digivices I'll kinda tweak them to fit the story, some of the story beats, characters personalities (like Ms. Asaji) and the rules of the digital world.**

 **Guest and yuutojaden : ;)**

Mr. Wong feverishly patted down his pockets, panic bubbling up in his throat and they continually came up empty. He sat down on a curb and opened up his briefcase, double checking even in there, and let out a loud, frustrated sigh when it proved to be in vain.

"I can't believe I left my phone at the house." He tossed a look at the bus longingly, torn between turning around or pushing on ahead to work anyway. He thought about his children, worry gnawing away at his stomach as he thought of them somewhere, alone and scared, trying to reach him, to call him, and only getting his answering machine… Mr. Wong turned around. His work would surely understand when he explained it to them, at least that's what he told himself to try and calm his anxieties of showing up late. Internally he was smacking himself, wondering where his mind had been recently. Usually he was Mr. Prepared, even when he was younger, or at least paranoid about being caught unprepared.

Picking up his pace he headed back in the direction of his apartment building, cutting through the park in order to save some time. No use being later than he already was. Usually he tried to avoid the park, as it was where his song often hung out, and he wanted to make sure he gave Henry enough space to grow, so instead he just prayed that he didn't run into his son and ruin any fun he was having with his friends.

"You and your pipsqueak have got nothing on me!" A voice cried out, grabbing Mr. Wong's attention. There, in the middle of one of the pathways, was a small purple monster with a red bandana tied around its neck, goading someone else on. Lifting his eyes Mr. Wong turned his attention to a Terriermon who was facing the creature, a very familiar looking Terriermon…

There, behind the Terriermon, was his son Henry, standing defensively and glaring at the creature. At the digimon. Mr. Wong watched as his son's eyes raised, as if in slow motion, to meet his own, widening in horror.

"We don't have to tolerate this!" Terriermon cried in a voice that Mr. Wong could distantly match up with from whispers he had heard in his home. "Yoo hoo, Earth to Henry?" Terriermon said, looking up at his partner with a sem i frustrated expression. "Geez, what're you looking a-" Terriermon stiffened as soon as he caught sight of Mr. Wong, face paling with realization. Mr. Wong found that he could only stand and stare at the sight in front of him. He had always tried to keep his hope at bay by telling himself that there was a good chance that Terriermon was truly a stuffed animal and not a living, breathing digimon. But here he was, in front of him, moving and talking and reminding him of…

"Hey, what're ya looking at? I'm talking over here!" The purple digimon yelled indignantly at the now frozen pair. "Geez, you have horrible manner, even with your master, you little lapdog. What a disgrace to digimon kind!" He harumphed, crossing his arms and tapping his foot impatiently.

"Digimon." Mr. Wong repeated, letting the word hang in the air, in reality, where anyone could see it. As if speaking the idea back into existence, and he could practically feel his past being dredged up with it, all the bad… and all the good. The small purple Digimon turned to see Mr. Wong, raising an eyebrow.

"Huh? What're you looking at?" He raised his hand a bright red flame appeared, dancing in his palm. "Maybe you need a bad-a-boom!" He threw the flame at Mr. Wong who raised his briefcase up in defense, old muscle memory taking over as it rushed to the forefront of his mind. Finally he was grateful for keeping up with Cody's Tai Chi lessons from so long ago.

"Dad!" Henry yelled, eyes wide with horror. Mr. Wong looked back at Henry, opening his mouth to reassure him that he was okay. Obviously this digimon, from it's mannerisms to its appearance, was a Rookie, so he shouldn't be too in danger. Instead his eyes flickered to the boy standing behind Henry, his friend Takato, except now with all the recent developments, when he looked at the young boy he seemed to the shadow of someone he once knew there, their identity just out of reach...

"Maybe you need another one!" The digimon yelled, another flame coming to existence over his hand as he lobbed it at Mr. Wong. Distracted by the boy Mr. Wong began to raise his briefcase too late and instead felt a searing warmth spider across his shoulder. A small cry of pain escaped his lips and his hand instinctively reached up to hold it, as if it would keep the pain from being felt. He had felt worse, but not in a while.

"No, Dad!" Henry called, surging forward. "You need to get away from here!" Terriermon, the ever faithful companion, hopping protectively in front of Mr. Wong, ears raised slightly and body leaning forward as he glared the purple digimon down.

"Leave him alone!" Terriermon said as the purple digimon looked at him in shock.

"You're really defending this guy?" He questioned, gesturing to Mr Wong. "Whatever. I'm outta here." He jumped into the bushes, away from the scene. Mr. Wong was Terriermon begin to pursue him before glancing back at him and rushing to his aid instead.

"Mr. Wong, are you okay?" Takato asked, stepping towards him. Mr. Wong glanced over at his son, who was nervously shuffling his feet.

"I'm fine, but Henry… we need to talk." He couldn't help as his voice took on a serious tone, his son's eyes widening.

"No Dad. I'm sorry, but I can't do this right now!" He bent down and picked up Terriermon in his arms, eyes full of fear that made Mr. Wong's stomach twist with guilt. He should have taken a better approach. He watched as his son ran out the way that he had come, in the direction of the train station.

"Uh, nice seeing you Mr. Wong!" Takato shouted as he ran after Henry. A moment was taken to stand in dumb silence before he shook his head, determination taking over. He had to follow Henry and make sure whatever it was his son was doing, that he was okay. That was his job as a father.

oOo

"Hey, are you guys okay?" TK asked as he sized up both Takato and Henry. They were out of breath, and Henry had this shaken look in his eyes as he took his seat on the bus, constantly looking around as if expecting to see someone. Me and Rika had been waiting for them at the station when they had burst in, panicked and sweating.

"It's-"

"It's nothing." Henry cut off Takato firmly, giving him a look that went over TK's head. Aw well, he was sure if it really affected them that Henry would let them know. Ie it was personal, then it was personal. It wasn't like TK had exactly spilled his guts on everything that was going on with himself, it would be wrong of him to expect the others to do that.

"Whatever." Rika said, arms folded as she glared out the adjacent window. Out of all the tamers, TK knew Rika the least. She was incredibly cut off in a way that was unfamiliar to TK, whose companions during both adventures with the digital world had been at least open enough to talk and joke around. RIka was more of the no-nonsense type, and from what Takato had told him when he'd asked about her, it had pretty much been that way since they'd formed a team.

During the trip Terriermon was uncharacteristically quiet - they'd even gotten a relatively empty train car and were sitting in the back, a perfect position for him to go on ahead and be chatty if he wanted to. Instead he just sat in the safety of Henry's arms, nervously tugging at Henry's vest.

At last they made it to the shopping center, hopping out and finding a bench around the electronic department where they could sit down and scope out the area.

"Do you think he'd actually going to show up?" Takato asked excitedly, one of his legs bouncing up and down as he looked around, keeping an eye out for a blue and yellow jacket.

"Probably when pigs fly." Rika said sharply. TK looked around more before pulling out his digivice and pushing some of the buttons. It stayed silent for a while, screen black, before finally it lit up with the grid screen showing the himself and the red dots of Henry, Rika, and Takato. It was with mild disappointment that he didn't see any other dots glowing.

"Do you guys think… that there are more tamers than us?" TK asked carefully. After all, these three had lived in Shinjuku longer than himself, if anyone was going to have a good idea on whether or not there was word or indications of his friends somewhere here, it would be them.

"Sandiramon sure seemed to think it was only us." Henry commented, absentmindedly petting Terriermon, who leaned into his touch, eyes half closed.

"It there were any other tamers, I'd think they'd have shown up by now. Or they're just cowards." Rika commented, eyes trained on the people passing by, hopping from one person to the other, looking for the man in the jacket. TK looked around eagerly, anxious to find the mysterious man - if there was a person out there creating magic digimon cards, maybe they knew why he was here. A small part of him was extremely hopeful that it was Gennai. He'd appreciate a familiar face that always seemed to know what was going on.

TK got distracted watching one of the televisions, which was broadcasting some sports game. He watched as the image warped until it was reduced to static, along with all the other televisions. He frowned, eyebrows knitting together.

"What the- guys!" Henry said, standing up. All around them the electronics were going haywire, the sound of static sinking into their ears like some kind of poison. TK winced against the abrasive noise. Terriermon was standing up attentively, staring up at the sky with an uncharacteristically serious expression.

"Incoming." He said and backed away just as two figures burst form the descending cloud of fog, leaving craters in the street. Screams shouted and blended oddly with the static sound as people fled the streets. Rika just rolled her shoulders, and from the mist Renamon appeared, eyes narrowed. Digimon were bigger than TK remembered as the two figures go up, looking around with blood red eyes.

"Oh no, they don't look too fun!" Calumon appeared, hopping ontop of TK's head to get a better view. The two digimon were similar - looking like some kind of centaur… if the centaur was also part minotaur. One of them was a bull, the other a sheep, and each step they took seemed to shake the earth as they began to eat the electronics, slurping down wiring like Davis used to eat ramen noodles. Which is to say rapidly and with gusto.

Takato pulled out his digivice and directed it at the pair, the screen coming to life as it got it's reading.

"Looks like the bull one is Vajramon a… Ultimate level!" His voice squeaked a bit as he turned it to the other digimon, shaking. "Pajiramon - same type! I knew I should have brought Guilmon!" Takato worried, pocketing his digivice.

Pajiramon released a loud bleat that shook the earth and the cars. TK could feel the sound waves resonate painfully in his skull before he put down his hands, ears still ringing.

"These guys are nasty." Takato said, biting his lip as Terriermon continued to move forward bravely.

"I bet they're Deva's too." Henry said, watching as they continued to eat the electronics. "I wonder why they're eating though…" TK looked over, and for a moment Pajiramon's form seemed to fizzle to static.

"I don't think that they're stable yet!" TK said, and Rika and Henry shared a look.

"Then I guess we need to ruin their meal." Rika said confidently. "Let's go Renamon." Her digimon appeared behind her.

"Of course Rika." Renamon became a blur of motion as she rushed up at Vajramon.

"We got the meat head, you get bo beep." Rika said, and Henry nodded, Terriermon rushing forward and landing a hit on Pajiramon. Both of the Tamers withdrew their decks, thumbing through the cards. TK looked over, somewhat excited to see the new feature in action again.

"Digi-modify! Thor's Hammer, activate!" Henry shouted.

"Digi-modify! Crystal fire, activate!" Rike yelled. Both of their digivices glowed brightly, and in sync their partners emitted a glow.

"Yeah!" TK looked over at Terriermon, who was now holding a massive hammer, so disproportioned with his small body it actually looked downright cute. It was pretty incredible, and it made TK want to look through decks on his own to see what other possible effects the cards could cause.

"Taste this, glutton." Renamon said as she rushed upon Vajramon, a blue fire was glowing on her fists and feet, striking his across his face. Terriermon swung his hammer, slamming it down on the back of Pajiramon's head. TK found his face lit up in excitement, only to fall as he saw how both of the Deva's were largely unaffected by the attack, turning as if they had merely been hit by a summers breeze. He could see that Henry was also unnerved, and though Rika didn't really emote, her steely gaze intensified.

"We didn't even make a dent." Rika ground out. A sense of foreboding wormed it's way into TK's stomach, and out of the corner of the eye he saw Takato pull out his deck and begin to filter through it.

"HA!" Terriermon yelled out as he attempted again, slamming down the hammer. The sheep digimon just headbutted him, flinging the small digimon across the area. He landed with a dull thud on the ground.

"You are the pathetic little bug that must answer to the whim of humans?" Pajiramon questioned as she placed one of her hooves on Terriermon's small body, lowly lowering it and digging it into his stomach. Henry's eyebrows knitted together and he grit his teeth as he watched his partner squirm in pain. "Tell me, scum, what is your name?"

"None of your business!" Terriermon spat out.

"And what about yourself?" Vajramon asked Renamon, who had softly landed on the hood of a car nearby, not even leaving a dent.

"You won't remember it after the beating I give you." She replied, piercing him with her eyes. Vajramon gave a sickening grin, sending a shiver up TK's spine.

Pajiramon picked up Terriermon, holding him in her fist. He looked like a small toy in her gigantic hand. Next to TK, Henry was shaking.

"Uh-oh, they don't look happy." Calumon said.

"No, they don't." TK agreed.

"Let him go!" Henry yelled, voice full of fury, but one look at him revealed the fear that was edging it's way into his gaze.

"And why would I do that?" Pajiramon questioned as she began to squeeze him tighter. "It's so much more fun to watch the life slowly drain out of him."

"We're wasting time!" Vajramon said. "We were told to crush the Digimon that are servants to humans and load their data." Pajiramon nodded, and then threw Terriermon into the air, taking out her weapon, a crossbow, for the first time.

"You should feel honored to have your data loaded by a Deva." She said as she sent n arrow in his direction.

"No, Terriermon!" Henry shouted, and a red light flashed, momentarily blinded them. A loud, familiar screench came from Henry's digivice, illuminating Terriermon as he changed forms. TK looked on eagerly.

"Terriermon, Digivolve to…" TK squinted through the light, and he could've sworn he could see the digimon's data being stripped down and rewritten into a new form. "Gargomon!" He cried as the light came down and he landed on the ground, lifting up a pair of hands that were now guns, shooting them off rapidly.

"Pants." TK said lamely, and Henry threw him a smile.

"I know, right?" Takato replied.

"Ack." Pajiramon said as she put her arms up around her head, trying to protect herself from the assault of bullets. He landed onto the concrete with a smug grin.

"Are you going to Digivolve as well?" Vajramon asked as he took out one of his midnight black swords. "I'd hate to destroy your before I saw that."

"I don't need to." Renamon replied. "This is easy enough in this form."

"What did you say?!" He shouted as Renamon jumped into the air, spreading her arms out.

"Diamond storm!" Was her response as glittering gemstones showered onto his head. Vajramon twirled his sword, easily deflecting her attack.

"Dance sheep, dance!" Gargomon cried happily as he shot the ground at Pajiramon's feet.

"This is becoming tiresome." Pajiramon said. "Vajramon, stop fooling around and destroy her!" She shouted at her companion, who was laughing as he blocked another onslaught of diamond storms from Renamon.

"Speak for yourself, I'm having a blast!" He let out a boomed bark of laughter.

"He's toying with her." Rika said in disgust. TK glanced over, almost surprised to see how bothered she was by the entire charade. Apparently the rude behavior to her Digimon had cut through her usually cool exterior, showing the care that she typically had under a firm seal.

"Henry, try this out. I think it might give Gargomon an edge." Takato handed Henry one of his cards, who took it gratefully.

"Digimodify! Hyperspeed activate!" Gargomon started to run towards Pajiramon, but she raised her front hooves and slammed them harshly into the ground, causing it to shake violently, Gargomon falling to the ground.

"I. Have. Had. Enough!" She shouted as she pulled out her crossbow again, loading it up. "Stay a while." She fired the arrows, pinning Gargomon onto the ground. In the background Renamon was still attacking Vajramon with no result. Pajiramon readied more arrows, aiming at Gargomon's chest.

"No, Gargomon!" Henry cried out, moving forward. Takato grabbed him and held him back.

"It's my job." Pajiramon said cooly, her gaze steely. "The least I could do is ride the world of this pest." She forcibly spat out the word. Meanwhile Vajramon sliced his sword in the are where Renamon had been just moments ago. By now she was in the air, seeming to hang there for a moment longer than someone should before kicking him in the face and landing on the flat side of his sword.

"Calm down, beefcakes." He raised one of his eyebrows.

"Feisty one, aren't you?"

"You have no idea." She replied, dealing another blow and deftly getting out of the way of other attacks.

"Try this card." Takato offered after shuffling through his deck again. Henry grabbed it with shaking hands, glancing at it and nodding.

"Okay. Digi-modify! Rock armor activate!" In a flash of light Gargomon turned to stone. TK let out a sigh of relief as an arrow bounced off his now hard exterior.

"It'll take more than that to stop me." Pajiramon gritted out, approaching Gargomon and slamming onto him with her hooves." The air left TK's lungs as pieces of Gargomon began to shatter off, his exterior cracking.

"Anything else?" Henry asked, desperately looking at Takato who was shifting through his deck of cards still.

"All I have are garbage cards… wait, what about the blue card? It's got to do something, right?" Takato asked earnestly, and Henry reached into his pocket, pulling it out. The shiny blue caught the light through the fog, making it refract into a myriad of colors when it caught TK's eyes just right.

"It can't make things worse." TK urged, and Henry's expression solidified.

"Right. Digi-modify! Blue card, activate!" As soon as the card was swiped through it began to glow, and TK thought maybe it would turn into a laser or something, but instead it just shot out of his digivice, disappearing into the sky.

"Well that was a little disappointing." Takato muttered. Though it did distract PAjiramon for a moment she shrugged it off, turning back to Gargomon and rearing back one of her hooved feet.

"I'm done with this."

"No!" Henry shouted, reaching out. TK looked over, and he could visibly see himself when he had lost Patamon the first time, as if the entire world was about to break around him. Frantically he looked around for something he could do, but TK was just a human and he had no partner that could help out. Suddenly a figure emerged from the mist, slamming into Pajiramon and, with the element of surprise, knocking her off her feet.

"What the-" Pajiramon turned to look at her attacker, reaching for her crossbow that had been tossed when she fell. Her eyes landed on none other than…

"Dad?!" Henry said, half in surprise, half in horror. Mr. Wong's fists were clenched and his expression was hard, but there was a slight tremble to him that TK could see even from here.

"D-Don't you hurt him." He said in a shaky voice, moving so that he was protectively in front of Gargomon.

"Pathetic human, get out of the way." PAjiramon reared back up and slammed her hooves into his chest, a sickening crack rang through the air as he was flung to the ground, glasses flying off of his face. From his spot on the ground he coughed, and it was too wet sounding. "I am finished playing around."

"Dad!" The words tore out of Henrys throat filled with anguish. There was a shrill beeping from his digivice and deep in his chest TK felt something jerk. Distantly he heard Calumon let out a small cry, and Gargomon glowed vibrantly, code being reworked and remade

"Gargomon Digivolve to…" The light spread out over the street. "Rapidmon!" His new form was sleek and metallic looking, with rabbit like ears and a green exterior, eyes full of fury. He shot out from his spod on the ground, moving so fast that TK was having a hard time keeping track of him.

"What?!" Pajiramon exclaimed.

"Yeah, that's right. This is for Mr. Wong!" He shouted, hitting into her face with such force that it knocked her off her hooves, slamming into the side of a building. "Thanks for playing Parajiramon, but it's gameover." Rapidmon said cooly, aiming his guns. She disintegrated into data the same moment that Vajramon did, Renamon landing on the ground next to him, breathing heavily.

"Dad!" Henry ran towards his dad's prone floor, Terriermon drifting down from the air on top of his head, giving off pieces of data as he returned to his rookie form. Henry knelt down over his dad, who was shaking and coughing, Henry's hands hovered over his dad. Afraid to touch him. "Dad, please tell me you're okay."

"H-Henry." Mr. Wong groaned, his eyes cracking open before coughing again, flecks out blood spraying out of his mouth. Each of his breaths were short and shallow, his eyes scrunched up in pain.

"S-stay with me." Henry pleaded as sirens began to grow louder. TK glanced over to see Rika put away her phone - at least someone here had their wits about them. The ambulance pulled up and took Henry and his dad away, leaving the other three tamers to stand numbly in the destroyed electronics department, feeling somewhat numb and afraid. It was a feeling TK was familiar with. He gritted his teeth tightened his fist around his digivice. He was so useless without a partner.


	8. Bonds

**Cartoonprawn - I'm glad you're excited!**

 **ReaperofShadows215 - thank you!**

 **Yuutojaden - working on it :P**

 **Guest - also working on it**

 **Puberty 7756 - I managed to get it fixed cuz of the warranty actually!**

 **YamiKibou-Hope - Sorry it took my so long to get this chapter together!**

 **Thanks for your patience guys. I know it's been a while. But we're back at it again to do our best.**

oOo

Mr. Wong let himself float in the place inbetween. Somewhere that wasn't awake and wasn't asleep. Trapped in the middle of life and death. A place where he didn't have to worry about what name he was using now, the things that had happened and stuff that he had done. He had closed his eyes from the cruel and harsh reality of the world, the pain that came with it, and when he opened his eyes he found himself somewhere else. Somewhere softer. A field of swaying grass and flowers, and from somewhere in the distance the salty taste of the ocean coated his tongue. There, lying in the field, was a small white and purple creature.

"Gomamon?" He exclaimed, voice small and young, looking just like he had when him and Gomamon had first met all those decades ago. The creatures head bolted up and turned his way, eyes wide and a broad smile breaking out on his face.

"Joe!" In a few fast, but somewhat clumsy, bounds Gomamon had crossed the small distance between them, launching himself into Jo's waiting arms as they toppled onto the grass that didn't truly exist, two halves of a whole reunited. "I-I've-" Gomamon choked on a sob, voice muffled from where his head was tucked into Joe's sweater vest. "-I've missed you so much. I thought… I thought I'd never see you again."

"Some things are unbreakable." Joe said, letting the tears slip out of his own eyes.

"Y-you're such a sap, Joe." Gomamon lifted his head off of Joe's chest and attempting to wipe his eyes. "Where are we? And how are you here?" He lifted a hand up to Joe's face, eyebrows scrunching together. "You look so young Joe… younger than even the last time I saw you." Joe lifted his hands up, taking a moment to marvel at how small uncalloused they were, noticing for the first time his current youthfulness.

"I'm not sure, I'm definitely way older than this in the real world." Taking a quick survey of the surroundings Joe cocked his head to the side. "This isn't the digital world is it? Maybe it's like… unconsciousness? Or something. Is this dream?" As the words left his mouth he aged five years, his hair grown out to his shoulders again, gaining several feet of height.

"It can't be a dream Joe," Gomamon dug his paws into Joe's arms, his claws digging in ellicting a small amount of pain, very real. Too real.

"This has to be because of what happened." In a blink of an eye Joe was old again, was Mr. Wong again, the red blooming from his chest as blood oozed out, recalling his injury.

"Joe!" Gomamon cried, a paw hovering over the injury. "What happened? Are you okay?!" The world around them was beginning to fade, like a watercolor painting, the taste of the sea disappearing to be replaced by the distant smell of antibacterial hospital.

"I'm going to be okay. I'm better than okay - Gomamon, this means that we're still connected. I knew it, we knew it. I never should have stopped searching - Gomamon, I'm going to see you again, in person, I swear it." Gomamon was little more than a smudge in Joe's vision.

"I believe you Joe. I'll be waiting."

oOo

It's a while before the doctors let Henry into the room - and even longer before he can get a chance to have a moment alone with his dad, without his siblings and his mom crowding his dad. They keep stealing glances at one another, even while Suzie complains about being unable to sit in her dad's lap and plays doctor, putting bandaids all over him at random. The time however did come, when it was just Henry, Terriermon, and his dad in the room, the soft beeping of machines filling the silence as Henry stared at his dad's chest, uncovered with the blanket at the moment showing the bandages.

"Are you okay, Mr. Wong?" Terriermon was the one to break the silence, gingerly wrestling himself from Henry's grip and softly landing on the foot of the bed. Mr. Wong gave a smile, looking at Terriermon with an indecipherable look, his eyes shining.

"I've been better. I've been worse." He made an attempt at a shrug and then winced. Henry grabbed a chair and dragged it over to the bedside, face screwed up in emotion.

"I'm sorry dad, I never meant to get you wrapped up in this stuff." Henry bit his lip even as he felt his dad's hand land on his head, giving his hair a light tousle. Henry stopped for a moment as a small sob came to him, tears beginning to prick at his eyes. "Th-thank you dad. Thank you for saving Terriermon, he's… dad I was so scared." Mr. Wong did his best to give his son a hug, as awkward as it was with his current state of incapacity. After a moment Henry managed to recompose himself, sniffling as he wiped away his tears.

"Henry, you can't drag me into something that I've always been a part of." Terriermon's ears picked up at that and Henry's head jerked, eyebrows knitting together.

"What do you mean?"

"There are things I haven't told you. When you gave me that card to scan the other day, I did know the code. The people who developed it, they're people I used to know. Their signature is a double sided K - Kamiya and Koushiro. I don't know if that'll help you much, but it's something." His dad's hands played with the bedding nervously, smoothing it out against his lap.

"Dad… how long have you known about Digimon? How did you know the creators of the card?" Mr. Wong just slowly shook his head, looking out the hospital window.

"I'm sorry Henry, I'm just not ready yet." And when he turned back to his song Henry was shocked to see the _hurt_ that was in his eyes. How painful it must be, to constantly be carrying that much sorrow inside yourself. "But I've known about Digimon for a long time."

oOo

TK took a deep breath, reached his hand out, retraced it and straightened out his cap, and reached it out again. It hovered there for a moment, finger a breath away from the doorbell, before he finally steeled himself and forced his finger forward, a song chime sounding from somewhere within the house. Tk instantly stuffed his hand in his pocket, fiddling self consciously with his digivice as the sound of someone moving inside the house got louder and louder.

"How did you find my house?" Rika asked coldly as she opened the door, keeping one hand on the doorknob as if ready to slam it shut at any moment.

"I- uh - Henry, he told me, cuz I wanted to talk to you-"

"About what? Don't tell me goggle head got you trying to start up a neighborhood digi-watch program too?" Tk shook his head so hard it nearly spun off of his shoulders, trying to stop Rika before this conversation could gon in any worse of a direction.

"K-Kenta and Kazu said you're good at the Digimon card game." There was a pause in their conversation, Rika's eyes narrowing.

"The best." Rika corrected. "World ranked. What's that to you?" Tk bit his lip and pulled out a small handful of cards - he had borrowed them from Takato, and they were worn and well loved by the boy.

"Earlier, at the fight downtown, I was completely useless. Pata- my partner - may not be here, so I can't right, but if I can learn the tactics of the game maybe I can use cards to help." He said, letting the hope bleed into his voice. Rika's piercing eyes looked him up and down, and suddenly he felt incredibly naked and vulnerable under her gaze. Finally she let out a breath and pushed the door away from her, turning around and flicking her hand out is a flicker-quick 'follow me' gesture.

"Come in, but be quiet, my grandma's sleeping." Her house was modeled traditionally, and after the shift small hallway was mostly open planned - she disappeared into what he assumed was her bedroom for a brief moment before emerging with an ornate box, taking it outside onto the backyard porch. Tk obediently followed.

There was a small stream that sang sweetly into the lazy afternoon as the sun beat down, making the shade of the porch extremely comforting. A low table was on the porch and Rika took a seat on the floor next to it, placing down the boz and taking the cover off of it. Curiously TK sat down on the opposite side - the entire place reminding him distantly of his grandmothers house, or Cody's place.

Inside the box were small cases for cards, each had a handmade label on them with a variety of titles like 'defensive - electric' 'offensive - well rounded' 'support focused'. Rika's hand hovered over several before finally pulling out a 'well rounded - underestimate' case and flicking it open, pulling out the deck and flipping through them before placing them down and pushing towards TK.

"Here, you can use these for today's lesson." TK fumbled with the deck he had taken from Takato, fanning it out in his hands.

"Oh, Takato lent me-" Rika reached out and pushed down on his outstretched hands.

"Don't make me look at what kind of awful unbalanced deck he plays with. I might actually die." Rike retorted and took out one of the other decks, placing the big box to the side before going through her own current deck and nodding to herself. "Alright, so first let's go over type of cards you can play with - modifying cards are most useful in real life, they're good for the sport too but there's more than that. We'll start with Digimon cards themself…"

oOo

"Okay, so I'm going to attack your Zudomon with my Lilymon but I'm first gonna use the digi-modify… Digmon's drill?" TK attempted to sound confident but it turned more into a question as he looked up at Rika's impassive face, waiting for her approval. Slowly she nodded.

"Well played." She took out one of her cards and placed it down, flipping back over all her defeated Digimon and smirking. "I'm better of course, but you're certainly coming along." Tk let out a grumble as he looked at the impending butt kicking Rika was about to give his deck. Rika's hand paused for a moment over her diamond storm card, a small frown appearing on her features.

"How's Renamon doing, after the battle?" For a moment TK was worried that he's overstepped his bounds but after a moment her shoulders sagged - TK was beginning to learn that interactions with Rika included a lot of Moments. In a lot of ways it was like talking with Cody, learning patience and letting the other a chance to process and think and decide what they wanted to say.

"She left." His eyes widened as Rika spoke.

"Left?"

"She went to investigate, and… I haven't really seen her since." Rika's hand fiddled with the card that she had picked up.

"Is she okay? Should we, I don't know, go looking for her?" She shook her head slowly, withdrawing her digivice from her pocket.

"She's fine. I think, I'm pretty sure if she was in danger I'd know. And if she's been gone this long then she's probably found something and is checking it out." The 'at least that's what I hope' went unsaid but was heard loud and clear. "Renamon is okay." She tried to put her usual confidence into it. "She'll come back to me."

Tk opened his mouth to say something, words of comfort maybe, assurances hopefully, but instead the sound of the front door opening interrupted him.

"Yoooo hooo, Rika sweetie!" Immediately all the blood drained from Rika's face and time seemed to stop as Rika looked from TK to the inside of the house before jumping to her feet, grabbing TK's arm.

"You have to leave." With one hand Rika swept up the deck that TK was using and thrust it into his other hand. "You can borrow this deck - practice with Kenta and Kazu, I hate to admit it but they aren't completely hopeless."

"A-are you sure I know they're your-"

"I have like a billion cards Bucket Hat, you can borrow twenty of them/ Now get out of here, before my mom sees you and starts to get _ideas_." She emphasized ideas with so much disdain, like the word could kill a person. Specifically TK if he didn't make himself scarce. He started towards to the front of the house but Rika jerked him away from that direction.

"She might see you that way." She hissed.

"But there's no other exit!" TK whispered back as the click clack of heels grew louder, th jangling of jewelry filling the air. "Do you expect me to jump the fence?!" Rika' face was impassive. "Oh my gosh."

"Get going or get dead!" Rika bit back and ran into the house, presumably to distract her mother. TK eyed the fence. Looks like he was really doing this.

oOo

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 **Thanks for reading and have a great day!**


	9. the End of Vajramon

"How'd it go?" Takato asked, quickly climbing out of the dinosaur-like playground equipment and hurrying over to Henry. Henry had an odd expression on his face, not yet meeting Takato's eyes as he instead continued staring at Terriermon, who was also unusually quiet.

"I'm… not really sure." Henry admitted, sitting down on a nearby bench as if the world was weighing down heavily on his shoulders. His arms were wrapped around Terriermon, but his hands were locked together, fingers moving around like unsettled worms. "My dad knows about Digimon." He said plainly.

"I mean, if he didn't know about Digimon after getting hit in the chest by one I'd be pretty concerned about your dad." TK replied, idly tapping buttons on his digivice. Takato had noticed him doing it moe ever since their trip to the electronics department but decided that if TK had something on his mind it was up to him to come forward about it on his own volition.

"No, I mean he knew about Digimon being real before Vajramon. Before Terriermon I even think." Now that caught TK and Takato's attention, even as Terriermon buried his face in his hands, practically vibrating with emotion.

"Woah, really?!" Takato exclaimed. Henry gave a numb nod. "And he told me something else, about the blue card. Do you guys remember how I talked about having my dad scan it's data the other day?" The other two nodded their heads. "It turns out he did know the signature on the card. I was two names that both started with K… ughI can't remember them right now. But I'm pretty sure it was two people."

"At least that helps to narrow down out search - it's two guys, right? So we have a better starting place now-"

"I'M SORRY HENRY!" Terriermon suddenly exploded, fat tears rolling down his cheeks as he turned around and clutched at Henry's shirt. Henry's grey eyes widened in surprise before his hands wrapped again around Terriermon and drew him close.

"What for?" He asked, confusion written over his features.

"I wasn't able to protect your dad. He got hurt because of me."

"No Terriermon, never be mad at yourself because of that." Henry replied.

"Yeah Terriermon." TK agreed. "Look we, we sometimes hurt as we progress through things. And the challenges ahead of us keep getting harder. But we're constantly rising to meet them."

"TK's right!" Takato added. "And we're always here for you. Next time Guilmon will definitely be there to back you guys up." He said it enthusiastically, raising a fist with determination flashing in his grin. Terriermon nodded slowly, wiping his tears before his ears twitched. His entire form stiffened even as his eyes narrowed.

"Henry, he's back." Henry gave a terse nod.

"Right, are you okay to do this Terriermon?" Terriermon signaled yes and already began taking, yelling behind him. "Takato, go get Guilmon! And TK go tell Rika - if Vajramon's back then Renamon's probably back too."

"Right." TK and Takato replied in unison, heading off in opposite directions."

oOo

Mr. Wong sat back against his pillows, absentmindedly scribbling code in a notebook. He already knew that this particular string of code wouldn't achieve what they had hoped it would, but it was one of the closest times they had come to re-establishing a functional way to the digital world.

The sound of heels clicking from somewhere outside of his hospital room grew progressively louder - he assumed it was somebody visiting a sick friend or lover or something - and turned his attention back to his notebook until he heard them stop right outside his door. He looked up cautiously, gripping his pencil tightly in his hand as if it was a weapon, as if he was in any state to fight with broken ribs.

"Yoo-hoo!" She burst in like a ray of light over the mountains, face vibrant as ever as her arm waved enthusiastically. Mr. Wong startled and grimaced as he distrubred his injuries, slowly reclining back against his pillow. The woman across from his clicked her tongue disapprovingly.

"Getting yourself hurt like this? How unreliable of you." She pouted as Mr. Wing watched her move with wide eyes. Suddenly the past few days had been too much. Too much of his past rising up. "I'll let you know I'm not in town for you, don't worry." The woman waved her hand flippantly. "I'm visiting my daughter and saw that some poor fool of a man got hurt in the news and I've never been good with everyone's new names but there was also a picture." She winked.

"You have a daughter?" Mr. wong exclaimed.

"Oh yes." She replied. "She's growing up nicely although I am away more often than I wish I was."

"Mrs, uh, Mrs-"

"Nonaka. It's Rumiko Nonaka now. And not Mrs. There's no man in my life."

"We really shouldn't be in the same room right now." Mr. Wong said as he looked around nervously. "I'm pretty sure we all made an agreement to leave each other alone and…"

"Oh don't feed me that nonsense. I want to hear all about what you've been up to - the newspaper article said something about marriage and kids? I want to hear allllllll about the lovely woman in your life and each of your charming and I'm sure too smart for their own good kids."

"We-well my oldest is Henry and he's…"

oOo

"Renamon!" Rika cried as she burst into the arena, hopping off the bike she had taken to get there. Sure enough Renamon stood there along with Growlmon and Gargomon, the three of them looking worse for wear against Vajramon. TK wondered, not for the first time, how it was these Deva's were so hardy of digimon, able to withstand even pile ups of champions. Rika was already moving, pulling out her digivice and a card.

"Digi-modify!" She cried as she swiped the card through the digivice. "Digivolution activate!" Renamon glowed as her layers peeled back allowing her code to alter and grow. Her bipedal form was abandoned to make her look even more fox-like than before, crouched and ready to pounce on all four legs with nine tails swishing in the air behind her.

"Wow." TK said. It was the first time he had seen Renamon digivolve, and the power she gave off was incredible, if only from her narrowed eyes that seemed more than willing to eat Vajramon for the pain they had put them through.

"Kyubimon, you are even more worthy to serve our Sovereign now." Vajramon said, spreading his arms out like an invitation.

"Fox Tail Inferno." Kyubimon shouted instead of a reply, the whirls of blue fire leaping to Vajramon. Despite that it just bounced uselessly off of his data, and TK grit his teeth. Even with Growlmon and Gargomon having fought him ahead of time it was like nothing was able to put a dent in this guy.

"You made it!" Calumon said enthusiastically, hopping into TK's arms even as the fighting went on. Kyubimon launching attacks and Vajramon easily parrying them. But Kyubimon was managing to hold her ground at least moderately - with her speed and balance.

"So beautiful," Vajramon said as Kyubimon came in close for an attack. "...yet so deluded." He spat the word out as he tossed her off of him. "You could be so much stronger, why do you follow such weak humans?" Kyubimon let out a small growl before headbutting him in the side, managing to at least get him a little off balance.

"Rika is stronger than you." Her voice was full of conviction.

"You will join us or you will perish." Vajramon seemed to be growing tired of attempting to convince Kyubimon, slashing his sword through the air. "You could have unlimited data in this world." He said as he took a swipe at her, Kyubimon delicately hopping out of the way. "Hey you insist on being the lap dog to such a worthless little girl!" He struck her again, and his attack hit her dead on, bring up a dust cloud that, when it settled, revealed Kyubimon on the ground, bits of data floating int he air.

"Kyubimon!" Rika cried, making a move to rush towards her partner before seeming to remember that's she was merely a human, with very little she could do to help her partner. Anger flashed in her eyes and she grabbed a card from her deck. TK felt his chest grow warm as the card changed colors. "The blue card." Rika said in awe before glaring defiantly at Vajramon. "It's our turn!" She declared as she gave it a swipe.

"Digimodify!" The light poured from her digivice's screen. "Matrix Digivolution, activate!" Kyubimon once again let her facade be torn away as the pain in TK's chest increased and the red light from Calumon launched into the stadium. TK could practically see how the power of the digivice and determination from Rika gave off all the data Kyubimon would ever need - who would ever need more than their partner - as her code warped as he stood up once again in a form closer to that resembling a human with billowy sleeves but her same slitted, prepared eyes.

"Hmph, why do you choose such a form? The sovereign would not be pleased." Vajramon retorted, his nostrils flaring.

"I don't really care what your master thinks." Her form blurred at the speed we was going, appearing in the air above Vajramon. "A Thousand Spells!" She called, razor sharp pieces of paper coming out from her sleeves, slicing Vajramon.

"You deceiving creature, I will destroy you!" He cried as he swung his swords in Taomon's direction, but he simply knocked them away, undeterred. "Why do you play games with me?! Why are you here?!" He cried as she leaped lithely away.

"I only wanted information. I am done with you now." Taomon answered.

"You deceptive wretch! Once I take care of you, I'll do away with that puny human of yours!" His blades shot towards Taomon, but she leaped into the air, summoning a giant paintbrush.

"No one," And anger filled Taomon's voice. "...threatens Rika. Talisman of Light!"

"What, no, NO!" Vajramon cried as the symbol overtook him, his body dissolving into data.

"Wow." Takato said as he looked at Taomon, floating in the air, triumphant against her foe.


	10. Island Life

"I'm very pleased with your new Digivolution." Rika said, basking in the coolness of the night. Nearby stood Renamon, perched daintily atop a statue. Rika couldn't help but to think of the times when she was so unsure whether or not she would ever get to see Renamon again. But now the distance between them felt like it was nothing.

"Good." Renamon cooly replied.

"But despite everything you know what pleases me the most?" She asked, a small smile on her face.

"No, what?" Renamon questioned, turning her attention to look at Rika.

"How heroic you look, standing there in the moonlight." Before Renamon had a chance to reply Rika pedaled away on her bike, and if that wasn't just so quintessentially Rika. To give a compliment and then run. Renamon smiled and darted away, following Rika at a distance, ensuring that her tamer, no, her partner got home safely.

Rika put away her bike and checked the time, wincing. It was somewhat late, and she couldn't help but to hope that her grandmother was already in bed, instead of staying up, waiting for Rika to arrive home, worried that she wouldn't appear. But the lights in the house were still on so odds were she was, and guilt gnawed away at Rika's stomach as she entered the house, taking off her shoes before heading to the living room.

"Rika!" She felt her eyebrows shoot up. She had forgotten that her mom was coming home as she was rushed by the woman, who embraced her in a solid hug.

"Mom." Rika whined, trying to squirm free from her ironclad arms.

"I'm so sorry I missed you earlier! I was out visiting an old friend and lost track of the time, please forgive me love." Her mom broke away from the hug and clasped her hands. Rika rolled her eyes.

"You're fine mom, I've been with friends a lot recently." Instantly she perked up, excitement written all over her face.

"Oh! My Rika with friends, how exciting. There wouldn't happen to be a very special boy in the mix? Perhaps a special girl?" Ah yes, this was exactly why she made TK jump the fence the other day.

"No mom, they're just friends." In her exasperation Rika failed to notice her mother's gaze, that landed on her digivice on her hip, and stared at it just a little too long.

oOo

"TK…" TK froze on his way up the stairs, ready to tuck into bed. The past few days had been a little crazy with a lot going on, and he felt the ache somewhere deep in his bones. Mr. Matsuki was sitting on an armchair in the family room, bent forward pensively, a lamp behind him lit and making him almost look like a silhouette. TK suddenly was overwhelmed with the feeling that he had done something wrong and disappointed his 'father'. Or like he was about to get sucked into a staged intervention.

With cautious and slow feet TK moved from the stairs into the living room, and at Mr. Matsuki's gesture took a seat on the couch facing him. In his pocket TK nervously pressed the buttons of his digivice, and he nervously bit his lip. The look aMr Matsuki had fixed on him sent a chill up his spine and seemed to scream that something bad was on the horizon.

Mr. Matsuki's eyes were intent, and his mouth opened a few times before he said anything.

"Takato is going on vacation to visit his cousin in a few days." He said, and it was clear, from the way his jaw was still clenched and his hand was shoved in his jacket pocket, seeming to fiddle with something, that this was not what he wanted to say. That Mr. Matsuki had something else down inside of his gut that he wanted to say to TK., but that for one reason or another he dared not.

"Oh, that sounds… fun?" TK replied, not sure what was the correct response, the expected response.

"He's been asking for a while, when you haven't been here, whether or not you can come. Henry is already going to tag along with him and see the island. So after some discussion we decided that you should go as well. Help keep Takato in line."

"I don't want to impose myself on you more." TK said hastily, raising his hands, fully aware that planes rides weren't cheap. "You're already giving me a place to eat and sleep." He explained, but Mr. Matsuki was already shaking his head, a small smile on his face and most of the tension from previous was gone.

"We really want you to go - if nothing else do it for Takato." And finally, TK let a grin spread across his face.

"Okay." TK said, letting out a breath of air from his lungs.

"Great. We'll help you get all packed in the next couple of days. With Takato and Henry I'm not too worried about one of you three getting lost on the way, but just in case we'll fix you up with a phone or something to help keep everyone in touch." Mr. Matsuki stood up and began to walk out of the room. He paused right before turning down the hallway into the kitchens, not facing TK, and suddenly the thick and tension rich air was back.

"TK." He said the word and let it sit on his tongue for a moment, like he was tasting it. Like he was trying to determine what it's components were. "You'll be staying with my sister's boy, Kai. He's very sweet and a little hot tempered, just like her. Like my whole family really." His eyes were expectantly on TK's face. "Her name is Jun."

TK wasn't sure what his face looked like as his mind went a million miles a minute, trying to figure out what that meant. What Mr. Matsuki was trying to say. He had known a very small handful of Jun's in his life, but only one that was actually relevant to him. Davis' older sister, so much like him and his wild mane of hair and short fuse. Eager to tease someone. But that was Davis, Davis Motomiya. Not Matsuki.

Whatever of those thoughts were displayed on his face, he wasn't sure what Mr. Matsuki read and extrapolated. But there was a small nod, and then he proceeded down the hallway to the kitchens. Leaving TK sitting on the couch, mind going a million miles a minute.

oOo

"You," The word is echoed through a void, with a surreal quality to it. Double layered voices that meld together into a single message, a single being. "...you are all that is left of Apoclymon's data. My duty is to finish what my partners started." Omnimon continued, staring coldly at the strange, grotesque digimon in front of him.

"Ahhh, you've finally found me. But you can't catch me, and you know you can't. Those partners that you speak so highly of, they've abandoned you. Abandoned you at the worst time, and now you're stuck here." He taunted.

"I know what you plan to do, and I will stop you." Omnimon was almost hard to look at, a figure seemingly composed of pure light amid the pure darkness, his bright white armor gleaming from an inner light.

"You may have caught on, but you'll never win. I will reign supreme!" With a of his his hand Omnimon summoned his sword and launched forward, swiping it in a wide arc. "Sorry, Omnimon, but I really must go. Have fun In Between." The void seemed suck in around him, space folding in on itself until he was gone. Leaving Omnimon alone, surrounded by thick and suffocating darkness.

oOo

"So, this cousin of yours, what's he like?" Henry asked, moving around impatiently in his seat on the plane.

"He's really nice and carefree. Fit's perfectly with island life. I think it's because my Aunt is busy supporting him, so he spends most of his time with his grandpa - the one we don't share. So, he kind of gets to be his own person." Takato sifted through his bag for a second before pulling out a small rectangular picture. "I actually have a picture of him." Henry, Terriermon, and Takato all leaned forward eagerly. Henry lightly bapped Terriermon.

"Stop moving, people are going to notice." He berated and Terriermon rolled his eyes.

"You give other people too much credit." Terriermon replied and Henry gave a long suffering sigh.

The picture showed a small Takato, his hair going in a bout ten million different directions, sand sticking to his skin and grinning up at the camera, proudly in front of a sandcastle. With an arm slung around Takato was another small boy, around the same age, with much tanner skin and dark brown hair, giving a wide smile.

"Awww, you look adorable." TK cooed.

"It's been a long time since I last saw him." Takato said, looking at the photo fondly. "We've been emailing, but it's been a while since we've been face to face."

The plane landed at last, and all three of the Tamers welcomed the chance to stand up and stretch their legs. It took infinitely too long to finally get off the plane, and finally when they emerged it was like a breath of fresh air. The small group headed down to collect their luggage, watching as the bags went around in a circle, trying to spy the ones that belonged to them in the mix.

Takato's was easy to spot - it was the only one that was moving around.

"Shhhh, Guilmon be quiet." Takato hissed anxiously at his bag as Henry and TK helped to get it off the moving belt, and TK couldn't quite hear what Guilmon replied, but it certainly was quieter than before, so that was in improvement.

"I'm going to head out." Henry said, hefting his bag onto his shoulders. "I think Terriermon and I would both appreciate not being surrounded by people for a bit. Call us if you guys decide to come to the main island though." He held up his phone to emphasize his point. "It'd be great to get together with you guys again before we head back."

"Definitely!" Takato replied with a broad smile. "We should probably head out to now that we have our bags - I feel bad for making Guilmon fit into a bag like this." He admitted, rubbing the back of his head. "But it was the better option when it was this or leave him alone at home with only Rika to watch over him."

"I mean, there's also Kazu and Kenta." TK pointed out, and Henry gave a little laugh.

"Look, I love Kazu and Kenta as much as the next guy, but if we're honest they'd only enable Guilmon getting into trouble."

"That's a good point." TK admitted. "So I guess when it was leave him to Rika's spartan training or almost definitely letting the Gatomon out of the bag. Not really much of a choice."

Henry bid the two of them farewell and TK and Takato went to try and locate Takato's cousin. The nearby sound of a television attracted TK's attention.

"Tamashiro, tell us more about your new V-pet!" A female news reporter asked with oversaturated enthusiasm. She held a microphone up to a man's fake, smile so wide TK wouldn't be surprised if it split his face in half.

"He looks funny." A small voice said and TK jumped as a weight settled onto his head. He reached up and grabbed the small soft creature, bringing his hands down to see that he held Calumon, who looked at him and beamed.

"Calumon, how in the world did you get here?!" He asked with surprise, swiveling his head around nervously to see how much attention Calumon had attracted. Nearby Takato was still looking around, trying to spot anyone that looked familiar.

"I was in your bag!" He chirped happily and TK had to resist the urgh to smack his forehead. He should have checked more thoroughly. But if Calumon was here then Calumon was here.

"Act like a stuffed animal." TK pleaded.

"What's a stuffed animal?" Calumon asked as he played with TK's fingers.

"Just… don't move." He said with a sigh.

"KAI?!" Takato suddenly shouted, posture rigid and surprised. TK hurried over to investigate. Takato was looking at the television screen from earlier, eyes wide. There was a boy on the screen being shoved away from the microphone by the newscaster who's plaster smile was beginning to crumble.

"Look kid this is an interview." The interviewee began. TK never did get the rest of whatever it was he was saying as he chased after Takato who had taken off further into the airport, managing to lug the Guilmon suitcase with remarkable strength when it came down to it. The cameramen came into view and Takato left the suitcase behind, hurrying into the fray. Moments later he reappeared with the boy. Introductions were exchanged and they hurried to the ferry.

"Oh, we're so close." TK said excitedly as the ferry approached a small lush and green island.

"We're here." Kai said and shot TK and Takato a devilish grin before hoisting over the side of the ferry and jumping into the water.

"Kai, what have I told you about doing that?!" The ferryman yelled, and from the water Kai just laughed.

"Kai!" Takato shouted frantically.

"I'll meet you at the island!" He called back and started to swim to the beach. .

"So, I hope you know where this place is, because we just lost our guide." TK commented and Takato sent him a very uneasy look.


	11. The Beach

**Kizuna comes out today so I thought I'd push through with this chapter quickly! I hope you guys enjoy it!**

oOo

"What's even… the plan… when we get Guilmon to Kai's place?" Tk asked between breaths, panting desperately for air as he shoved all his weight into pushing the Guilmon suitcase, Takato on the other side pulling.

"I didn't… think that… far." Takato responded, stopping for a moment to wipe his forehead, leaning on the bag. It was so much more humid on the island, and it made the entire ordeal even more sticky and unpleasant. "Hide in my room, I guess?" The sun beat down on the pair, and involuntarily - exhausted from both pushing the bag and the special kind of tired one gets from being in an airplane for too long - both of their eyelids began to droop.

"Should we take a break?" TK asked, caving into the exhaustion that had wormed its way into his person. Takato gave a wearing nod, helping to put the bag into the shade of a nearby tree, the pair leaning up against the bark.

"I used to have a partner." TK said softly, staring up at the sky. Takato had reached over and unzipped the suitcase a bit, enough that Guilmon could poke his head out and get some fresh air. He couldn't recall if he had told Takato about Patamon before, but suddenly his chest felt so heavy from the distance between him and his partner. The desire to talk about it to someone was like a stone in his throat. How he missed the others. Takato just nodded at TK's words.

"What happened?" He asked, and TK worked his jaw for a moment, waiting for his thoughts and words to settle onto his tongue.

"I lost him. Or he lost me. Back when we were together, dealing with digimon was different." He tried to explain. "But after we finished dealing with them, in order to keep the balance of the world, the way to them was sealed." TK clenched and unclenched his hands.

Takato closed his eyes, trying to picture behind his eyelids a world without Guilmon. Even though they had only been together for a few months, it felt like part of him was now kept inside of Guilmon. To lose Guilmon would mean to have that piece of him gone forever. Takato moved his hand over and covered TK's shaking fist, trying to provide comfort.

Slowly, he felt himself relax, in the hot summer sun, melancholy rising in his chest, and by the time he realized he was falling asleep Takato was too exhausted to want to do anything about it.

oOo

The soft tones of a shamisen drifted through the air as TK woke up. The house instantly reminded him of Cody, or maybe of Rika's home. Traditional style with paper wall panels and dark wood. He shifted under the layers of the blanket that covered him, trying to dispel the heavy cloud of sleep that hung over him. Looking around the small room he could see Takato slumped down asleep, his hair a mess and a small amount of drool coming out of his mouth. Both of their bags were tucked neatly off to the side of the room, and someone had been considerate enough to take off their shoes.

He should have been alarmed to wake up in a strange place, but TK just couldn't find it in himself to feel threatened or afraid. It was clear that whoever had brought them here was kind and thoughtful, and nothing about the situation rose any alarm bells. He even checked in his pocket, happy to find his digivice right where he had left him.

"Hey, Takato." TK leaned over and gently shook Takato's shoulder, the boy emitting a small groan. Rubbing his eyes Takato sat up, looking around curiously. "Do you know where we are?"

"Oh, I think this is Kai's house. Oh geez its been so long since I was last here." Takato let his gaze wander around, doing the same surveyal of their situation that TK just had. "Oh, oh no!" Takato stood up suddenly, and TK felt the rest of sleep leave him, suddenly on edge at whatever it was that had spooked Takato. "Where's the Guilmon bag?"

TK glanced around the room again, shocked that he had let himself forget about easily the most important cargo they had.

"Oh dear…" Takato said, walking over to one of the panels that was open. The scent of an ocean breeze wafted in, the view of the beach so close to the house they were in. Walking up the sand was the dark tan figure of Takato's cousin, and trailing behind him, stopping every few steps to step and smell something was…

"Guilmon." TK breathed, alarm bells ringing in his head. Takato took off down the beach in an instant, and TK hurried behind him, although he wasn't sure what good rushing would do. There wasn't exactly hope for damage control.

"Kai, I can explain!" Takato started, but Kai interrupted him.

"Takato, I didn't know Digimon were real! This is awesome!" He exclaimed, and Takato was clearly taken aback. TK found himself in a similar state of surprise. If everyone was that obliging when it came to Digimon the world would be so much simpler.

"Wait, you know about Digimon?" TK asked, reeling a little.

"Duh, who doesn't know about Digimon? You know, besides my grandpa." He said and Takato looked about ready to pass out. They four of them walked back up from the beach, and now TK could get an appreciation for the small house from the outside. Simple and traditional looking, TK wouldn't mind having a house like this some day. The beach in such close proximity, away from other people, letting the sound of waves lull you to sleep every night…

"Interesting looking dog you have there." Kai's grandpa spoke up as they rounded the corner to the backyard. He sat on the back porch, and didn't pause in his shamisen playing.

"It's not a dog, grandpa, it's a Digimon!" Kai said it with such exasperation TK had to wonder how often this argument had risen since TK and Kai had arrived.

"Looks like a dog to me." His grandpa persisted. Calumon chose then to enter the scene, gliding through the air to land on TK's golden hair.

"Well what was that, a _flying_ dog?" KAi asked, his voice heavily laced with sarcasm. His grandpa looked at Calumon for a second before simply turning his head the other direction. Takato and TK couldn't help the small laugh that bubbled up and escaped through their mouths.

oOo

The morning brought with it a beautiful sunrise and a calm breakfast on the beach, watching the waves lazily lap the shore. Pink and yellow and orange tones mixing in with the cool blue of the ocean. Already the day had taken on a gentle and relaxed tone - even Guilmon was surprisingly lethargic, laying out and taking in the sun in such a way that TK couldn't help but to compare him to an actual lizard.

TK let the shore waves lap at his feet as he walked back and forth along the edge of water and sand, eyes scanning for shells or sand dollars he could add to his sandcastle. The calm of the day seemed to have worked its' way even into his tense muscles and stressed nerves. He hadn't been so sure about tagging along on this trip, but now that he was here TK thought that maybe it was exactly what he had needed.

The past few weeks, months, however long it had been, had begun weighing heavily on TK. the longer he went without finding the other digidestined the more he was worried that he was, for some reason, the only one sent to this time or world or whatever it was. Like home but through a funhouse mirror. But _someone_ had triggered his digivices' location program the other day, so he had to believe they were here. And on the beach, with a gentle breeze blowing through his hair, TK suddenly felt refreshed and knew that once he returned home he would be ready to take up the search once again. For all he knew the others were just as lost and uncertain as he was.

A scream pierced through the salt air.

All relaxation was gone in a moment, TK instantly on high alert. From up further on the shore TK saw Guilmon jolt up, and he had been around the digimon enough by now that he knew his eyes must be those thin, scary slits, the red form of the digimon sweeping his snout every which way as he tried to locate the source of the noise. Whatever Guilmon had caught a whiff of, it couldn't have been good, because his figure turned predatory and he let out a low growl, loud enough that TK could hear from where he was, slowly stalking in the direction of the ocean.

Out on the water was a small boat with a simple motor, a girl the only occupant on it. It was coming towards the shore at a high speed, the water behind it rough, pumping up the sea spray in a cloud that hung in the air after her. Suddenly a giant, slick, serpentine head came out of the water and let out a loud shriek, exposing rows upong rows of sharp teeth. It snapped at her boat, missing it by only a few fet.

"We have to help her!" Takato exclaimed, and Kai was already beginning to push one of his families fishing boats into the ocean. TK hurried over to help shove it out into the water, all four of them hopping, Kai staying back for only a second to give it one last firm push away from the dock. The engine started, choking only once before it rumbled to life. Ahead of them, the boat the girl was it exploded into splinters, and the girl disappeared into the waves.

It felt like the water was closing over TK's own head as memories flashed behind his eyes. Back to when Odaiba was under attack and all he had was Joe. And then suddenly, as he had was the water pushing at him from all sides. The feeling of water flooding into TK's lungs and through his nose, his hands and feet flapping and kicking uselessly on what seemed to be nothing, those things hadn't been fast to leave him. Almost without even thinking, TK leapt off the boat. Kai leapt off at the same time, and the two of them swam in the direction where the girl had disappeared, desperately searching for some proof of where she was, that she hadn't been completely swallowed by the waves.

There was a spray of water and loud sounds as Guilmon fought whatever digimon that had been - A Tylomon perhaps - but TK didn't let himself get too distracted. Instead he followed Kai's lead, diving under the water to try and find a trace of the girl.

Splashing came from TK's left and his head turned sharply to see pale hands and brown hair before they dipped under the water again. After their first adventure had come to a close, Joe had been determined to teach TK how to swim, and he tried to summon all he had learned in that time to the forefront of his mind, pushing through the water and reaching below the waves, managing to grab what felt like an arm.

"Kai!" He called. "I need help!" The boy was at his side faster than TK had any hope to ever swim in the water, and with their combined efforts they got her head above the water, and with Kai's help were back to the side of the boat in a few powerful strokes. Takato leaned down and helped to bring the girl up, gently laying her down on the seats as if she was made of porcelain. The second that Kai had swung himself back onto the boat he rushed to her side, and while TK was no expert he assumed Kai knew what he was doing as he made movements to try and make sure she was breathing.

The water had transformed from chaotic to eerily calm, and Takato anxiously looked over the edge, trying to discern if the dark shadows below were friend or foe.

"Guilmon?" He asked hesitantly.

"Takato-mon!" Guilmon called as his head broke through the water, waving cheerfully. Takato waved with equal amounts of cheer, tears on his face already beginning to dry.

The boat was back at the dock as quick as possible, and Kai carried the girl piggy back to the house with a swiftness reminiscent of Tai or Sora. Up the small hill they disappeared into the house, Takato and TK lagging after them. She was laid down on the back porch, where the sun wouldn't shine directly on her but hopefully was still warm enough that it would help her dry off. Kai quickly explained that he was going to go and find him grandpa before taking off further into the island, leaving Takato, Guilmon, and TK to watch the girl.

"Do you think she'll be okay?" Takato asked softly. He damp girl was sticking to her face, and there were deep bags under her eyes. Whatever she'd been through, it looked like it had taken its toll on her.

"She'll be okay." TK responded with confidence that wasn't entirely his. "Is this hers?" He gestured to the brown bag that was lying in the sun, waterlogged and sad looking. Takato asked. TK stepped forward and began to take things out of the bag and lay them out in the sun to dry.

"Isn't that an invasion of privacy?" Takato asked anxiously, and TK paused.

"I mean, it probably is, but what if one of these things is really important to her? I don't want it to be ruined." He argued, and slowly Takato nodded his head, helping him take out the items.

TK reached in and felt his eyebrows raise as they came in contact with something hard. When he pulled out his hand he found a laptop encased in a waterproof bag, clearly put in with care. Slowly, curiosity getting the better of him.

"Bark!" A V pet looked back at him.

oOo

"This is stupid! Why did Henry had to leave with Terriermon?" Suzie complained, crossing her arms in frustration as she stared at her computer. A V pet barked back at her happily, but she just frowned as it incorrectly solved a math problem. "Not even Daddy's home yet." She pouted.

"Ruff!"

"Okay, fine, I'll feed you." She muttered.

oOo

"Hello?" A man with fluffy brown hair picked up his phone lazily, eyes scanning over a computer in front of him. He wasn't as quick to translate the number as his friend, but it was better than nothing. Static was his only reply from the phone and he leaned forward, ready to hang it up, before a deep, double layered voice came from the other side.

"I… Need… You…" The man's eyes widened and the phone nearly slipped out of his hands, which seemed to spasm with his shock before he held it close, pressed it against his face desperately as if through will power alone he could force himself to the other side. He had managed stranger things before.

"Is that you?! It can't be! How are you talking to me? What do you need me for?" But his questions went unanswered as the line went dead. He stood there, numb, in his apartment for several minutes, eyes blankly looking at the screen in front of him.

oOo

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"Omnimon?" Yamaki whispered, replying to the voice that had echoed through the phone, resonating with his memories. A ghost from his past rising again to haunt him. The line was dead, and there was no reply. No hope of the Digimon on the other end hearing him.


End file.
